Abstract Books of the International Conference on Political Sciences
The Abstract Books of the International Conference on Political Sciences (POLITICALSCIENCE) presents carefully peer-reviewed research presented at the annual Political Sciences conference organized by Proud Pen. This collection captures original work across the field of Political Sciences, spanning theoretical frameworks to applied studies. Each volume serves as a reference for ongoing research and study in the discipline.
Supporting Justice Mechanisms Using Declassified Satellite Imagery
Transitional justice in post-conflict societies can often be obstructed by the erasure of evidence or lack of data concerning historical injustices. As witnesses age and landscapes change, it becomes difficult to ensure perpetrators of violence are held to account, posing a risk to the rule of law. In the case of the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide, the rapid urbanisation of Dhaka has led to a number of mass graves and sites of torture being paved over. This study explores the integration of satellite images into the transitional justice framework, focusing on the right to truth, the preservation of collective memory and restitution. It does so by conducting a comparative analysis of declassified satellite imagery from 1965 and 1972 over Dhaka. This is then combined with ground truth, including NGO reports, government documentation and witness testimonies to provide an account of atrocities committed during the genocide. Previous efforts to address the 1971 atrocities, such as truth commissions, have faced criticisms regarding political bias and lack of fairness. Satellite imagery offers unbiased evidence which can be used to corroborate witness accounts and provide an objective historical account of human rights abuses. The work demonstrates practical examples of cases in which historical testimonies and satellite data align, as well as cases in which their comparison helps clarify reported inaccuracies. Not only does this document the past but it strengthens institutional legitimacy and prevents impunity from destabilising democratic institutions.
Copyright (c) 2026 Abstract Books of the International Conference on Political Sciences
Were the Federalists the first Ordoliberals?
Is it possible to consider the United States a genuine economic state, given its founding principles and early constitutional framework? If so, can the U.S. Constitution be understood as a historically authentic economic constitution—one that creates public law by establishing a strong central government capable of regulating economic activity? In his lectures gathered under the title The Birth of Biopolitics, Michel Foucault, drawing on the Ordoliberal approach to the state-economy nexus, raises questions analogous to those concerning the early United States. The essential concern is how a state can come into being within the non-state space of economic freedom. For Foucault, contemporary Germany is a radically economic state, since its roots are precisely economic, emerging from the destruction of the war and the need to construct both state and market orders. Similarly, the U.S. Federalists in the late 18th century were building the American state and structuring its economic order through the Constitution. Post-World War II German Ordoliberals confronted a comparable dual challenge: constructing a new state while creating mechanisms to regulate markets and economic freedom. For this reason, the American case can be understood as the first instance of an economic state in modern history, foreshadowing later forms of economic constitutionalism. By situating the American Federalists as early architects of an economic state and placing them in dialogue with German Ordoliberal thought, this study aims to compare the constitutional construction of economic order in the United States and postwar Germany.
Constructing Hegemony: Subjectivity and Antagonism in the Catalan Independence Movement (2006–2018)
This paper examines the Catalan independence movement (2006–2018) as a process through which a collective political subject was constructed. Drawing on the work of Ernesto Laclau, it approaches the movement not as the expression of a pre-existing “people”, but as the outcome of discursive practices that articulate heterogeneous social demands into a contingent political unity. The analysis focuses on how key signifiers such as independence, the right to decide, and republic functioned in the construction of a Catalan sovereigntist subject, while simultaneously establishing antagonistic frontiers within the Spanish political field. Methodologically, the paper combines discourse-theoretical analysis with qualitative data from in-depth interviews, complemented by Q methodology and cluster analysis to identify patterns of meaning-making and political positioning. The findings suggest that the Catalan case can be understood as a process of hegemonic rearticulation in which dispersed demands were progressively unified through an equivalential logic, enabling the emergence of a politically effective yet contingent collective subject. The paper contributes to debates on populism, political subjectivity, and nationalism by offering an empirically grounded analysis of a contemporary European case.
The Role of International Relations in Internal Affairs: Evidence from Ministry of Internal Affairs Personnel in Romania
This study investigates how personnel within the Ministry of Internal Affairs perceive the role of international relations and cooperation across the full spectrum of internal affairs activities, including anti-corruption, combating trafficking in human beings, arms trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration, emergency management and so on. Against the backdrop of increasingly complex and transnational challenges, internal affairs can no longer be understood solely within a domestic framework, as international cooperation has become an integral component of institutional practice and policy implementation. The research employs a quantitative, questionnaire-based methodology, targeting employees within the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Romania. The instrument is designed to assess perceptions regarding the relevance, scope, and practical implications of international cooperation, as well as its perceived impact on professional responsibilities across different functional areas. By focusing on practitioners’ perspectives, the study addresses an important empirical gap in the literature, which often overlooks how international engagement is experienced at the operational level of domestic institutions. This paper is intended as the starting point of a broader research agenda aimed at systematically measuring perceptions of the role of international relations in the field of internal affairs. While the present study focuses on Ministry personnel as an initial target group, future research may extend to employees with direct responsibilities in international cooperation, as well as to the general public, enabling comparative and multi-level analyses. This paper contributes to the broader field of international relations by highlighting the intersection between internal affairs and international cooperation, while also aiming to support a reframing of the discipline in light of recent global developments, which have significantly reshaped the international landscape.
Singapore’s Role in Emerging Global Governance Structures: Arctic Engagement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
This paper examines Singapore’s strategic foreign policy approach within the context of contemporary global integration processes. A notable example of Singapore’s forward-looking strategy is its application for observer status in the Arctic Council, reflecting its multidimensional national interests. Singapore seeks to contribute to mitigating climate change effects, particularly glacial melting, by applying its experience in carbon emission reduction and environmental governance. At the same time, the country demonstrates interest in the Arctic’s natural resources and the growing strategic importance of the Northern Sea Route. The expansion of this route, which reduces shipping time compared to the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca, may significantly affect global trade flows and Singapore’s position as a major maritime hub. The study further analyzes Singapore’s modernization process in the second half of the twentieth century to explain its capacity to address twenty-first-century challenges. The close interconnection between domestic development and foreign policy priorities has enabled Singapore to maintain sustainable and dynamic growth while safeguarding its strategic interests. Special attention is devoted to Singapore’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). As a large-scale trade initiative covering 40 percent of global trade, the TPP provides Singapore with opportunities to diversify its economy, expand market access—particularly to Canada and Mexico—and strengthen its specialization in intellectual property and high-value industries. The paper concludes that Singapore’s engagement in such initiatives enhances its regional influence and reinforces its position within the evolving global economic order.
Arms Proliferation, Insecurity, and the Sustainable Development Goals in West Africa: An Interconnected Challenge
West Africa faces significant security challenges due to the proliferation of arms, exacerbated by weak governance, religious/ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and other criminal vices. This situation threatens progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goals 5, 8, 10, and 16. This paper examines the interplay between arms proliferation, insecurity, and SDGs implementation in West Africa. It highlights regional initiatives and national strategies to curb the flow of illicit small arms and light weapons (ISALWs), strengthen security, and promote sustainable development. It shall employ the sustainable security theory and the social exclusion theory in strengthening its views on the core drivers of these insecurity caused by the proliferation of arms and light weapons.This secondary data collection template will be used, sourcing data from official government and non-government institutions, journal articles, internet sources, etc..These materials will be analysed using qualitative/descriptive method.The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to address these interconnected challenges and strengthen regional security in West Africa.
Framing the Border as a National Security Threat: Fox News Immigration Coverage in the 2016 and 2024 Election Cycles
While previous scholarship has established the existence of U.S. right-wing ideological media framing and its evolution over time, there is limited research on how influential outlets such as Fox News have framed immigration across two critical election cycles: 2016 and 2024. These years represent key moments in recent American history: extreme-right-wing media narratives and how they shape public perception of emotionally charged topics, such as that of “illegal immigration” in the United States. This research paper examines how Fox News has framed the U.S.–Mexico border and immigration policy during election cycles, particularly in 2016 and 2024. It argues that Fox News strategically frames immigration as a national security threat during the 2016 and 2024 election cycles. I conduct a content analysis of the language, guests, and visuals used on Fox News programming, such as Hannity and Fox and Friends, to highlight how Fox News deliberately intensified its framing of the U.S.–Mexico border as a national security threat to influence public perception and invoke fear. This paper contributes to the fields of media studies and political communication by providing a multi-year analysis of threat-based storytelling employed by Fox News to shape public opinion. It deepens our understanding of the interplay between media bias, national security threats, and commercial incentives.
Information And Its Reliability in The Digital Reality
The latest scenarios of multi-modal messages, the multi-component and dynamic nature of online communications serve as a barrier to finding reliable information. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence, due to the large-scale and uncontrolled information dissemination in near real time, create fertile ground for disinformation, various types of hoaxes, and manipulations that serve political and commercial propaganda. Disinformation, using complex manipulative narratives, social engineering tools, perception management technologies, and behavior management technologies, poses a threat to society as a whole due to its political, social, and psychological dimensions. By polarizing society, it can lead to anti-democratic and populist movements, irreconcilable differences among voters, programmatic distance between political parties, and serious damage to democracy. The purpose of the study is to examine information and disinformation as propaganda tools, a type of information weapon, and a form of ideological struggle. The methods used in the study were observation, document analysis, comparison, analysis, and synthesis. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the systematization and synthesis of expert assessments and scientific articles on the topic of false information, fake news, and disinformation. The current task in these conditions is to develop effective measures to combat the spread of disinformation on the Internet, establish a fact-checking system, define the concept of expertise and the information sources prestige, carry out information campaigns on media literacy, and raise citizens' awareness of the country's national policy and its political problems.
Party or Candidate? Electoral Preference and Political Participation among Youth and Elderly Voters in the Himalayan State of India
How do voters weigh party labels against constituency candidates in Indian state elections, and how does campaign mobilisation shape this choice across generations? Using a widely used post-election survey from the Lokniti programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), this paper analyses the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly election in a Himalayan hill state in north India. The study examines whether respondents reported that their vote choice was influenced more by the party or by the local candidate. Campaign participation is captured through an index of six election period activities, and the analysis estimates separate binary logistic regression models for youth voters (18 to 29) and older voters (60 plus). The results show a clear generational divergence. Higher campaign participation is associated with greater candidate centred choice among youth, but with stronger party centred choice among older voters. Issue priorities also shape this trade off. Compared to identity and ideology, voters who prioritise livelihoods and welfare, and especially public services and infrastructure, show higher odds of privileging party considerations in both age groups. The findings suggest that campaign mobilisation does not produce a single logic of electoral judgement. Instead, it channels accountability through different cues across cohorts, with implications for how parties and candidates build responsiveness in competitive state elections.
Coalition Wargaming in the Cognitive Domain
Adversarial disinformation campaigns threaten national security and NATO cohesion by eroding public trust and destabilizing democratic institutions. While wargaming has been applied to disinformation challenges in the past, most efforts focus on operational or national level responses. A gap exists in frameworks to explore multinational approaches at the strategic level, where threat perceptions, policy priorities, and response measures differ across and within states. Wargaming adds to other frameworks by acting as a key form of alternative analysis (AltA), where multiple possible outcomes, actions and consequences can be explored in a safe-to-fail environment that can be iterated and customized according to the situation. Data collected from these wargames can be analyzed to strengthen situational awareness and the consequences of proposed courses of action (CoAs) for decision makers. This paper introduces a conceptual analytical wargame framework for exploring multinational responses to disinformation at the strategic level. The design enables participants to identify and evaluate consensus-based CoAs used by NATO. In addition, it enables them to explore the consequences of action or inaction and identify mitigation measures across whole-of-government and whole-of-society contexts. It does this while maintaining a balance between complexity and playability. In so doing, it aligns with the need for enhanced multinational strategic communication in NATO, and the emerging NATO Cognitive Warfare Concept which emphasizes resilience in the human domain. Integrated into a broader cycle of research, the framework for this type of wargame acknowledges the limitation of the generated outputs as only one data point amongst many, and that the triangulation of these insights with complementary methods enhances validity and generalizability. By providing a structured framework, this research supports efforts to test assumptions, reveal friction points, and inform collective strategies to combat and thwart disinformation campaigns. The results of this research can be applied impactfully by military and civilian leaders to disrupt and defeat disinformation now and in future.
Western Ways of Warfare: A Non-Western Meta-Legal Reflection
For long-term exploration and analysis of the western paradigm (or method of intervention) in conflicts, this study aims to examine its historical, philosophical, and meta-legal context. It is assumed that, rather than mere methodological exercise, any reflection that would facilitate the understanding of the conceptual ‘West’ and, by extension, its way of warfare, should essentially be epistemological and compellingly ethnographic. So, going beyond the Russian-Ukraine war of the 2020s, the study revisits two different but related philosophical questions. One is ontological: Is there a way of war that is peculiar to the West on whom Fukuyama’s work, for example, rests? The other is epistemological: how can the claimed western way of war be understood or explained? This meta-legal reflection specifically adds to, and complements, existing epistemological discourse around a western way of war by revisiting the intellectual tradition of scepticism: in this context, the perspective that knowledge, including a western paradigm of warfare, is impossible. Drawing insights from western political thought and public theology, it revisits the question of whether or why the rule of law still takes precedence over security when it comes to military strategy. Also, by building on the context and insights for understudying western intervention in armed conflicts, scholars should have more accessible grounds in the future for assessing, analysing, interpreting or predicting western engagements in declared wars.
The Resilience of the Israel’s Energy Sector During Security Emergencies
Israel’s energy sector faces significant vulnerabilities during security emergencies, including potential electricity supply disruptions driven by military demands and economic constraints. Although the country has shifted from imported oil to domestic natural gas and is gradually expanding its use of renewables, systemic weaknesses, such as limited storage capacity, centralized grid design, and inadequate integration of intermittent sources persist. This study employs a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the sector’s structural resilience. Quantitative analysis draws on official data to assess trends in electricity production, fuel diversification, and consumption. The qualitative component involves a structured content analysis of policy documents, regulatory decisions, and institutional reports. The findings highlight growing gaps between electricity demand and emergency preparedness, particularly in light of Israel’s heavy reliance on natural gas and the absence of a strategic reserve. The study concludes with policy recommendations aimed at enhancing the resilience of Israel’s energy system under conditions of armed conflict.
Targeted Disinformation in Diaspora Communities: Risks and Resilience
Information operations are a core function of warfare. Planting false or misleading narratives to influence the will, understanding, and capabilities of adversaries, potential adversaries, and broader audiences has long supported objectives in and beyond conflict. While disinformation has been used for millennia, its accessibility in 2025 is unprecedented. Adversaries—and allies—can now reach audiences instantly and sustain influence over time. Achieving desired outcomes requires precise audience targeting. Audience analysis is therefore critical, enabling a focused understanding of who to target and, from a resilience perspective, how to counter these tactics once identified. Vulnerable audiences present prime opportunities for exploitation and pose persistent threats to the states they inhabit. This research explores how adversaries target diaspora communities in blue-force states during crises and conflicts. Disinformation campaigns within these communities are common and strategically significant. A deeper understanding of their methods and manifestations can inform the development of countermeasures and resilience strategies, mitigating the impact of adversarial influence in an increasingly interconnected information environment.
Disinformation And Alliances: A Strategic and Theoretical Analysis
Alliances are a strategic advantage that states can use to bolster their defences against disinformation. Beyond defence, alliances can deter disinformation. Despite these advantages, most of the counter-disinformation initiatives taken by Western alliances pertain to the operational and tactical levels, rather than the strategic level; thus, deeper thinking about alliances and disinformation is warranted at the strategic level of analysis. Strategically, alliances enable states to pool resources, develop interoperability, devise advanced technologies in consortium, and coordinate policies across member states. Although these advantages are typically considered in the context of conventional capabilities (i.e., with regard to material military assets), alliances are also highly valuable for bolstering allied capabilities in the information environment. In that context, alliances are critical for balancing power against authoritarian states that use disinformation as an offensive method to accomplish their goals. By examining disinformation at the strategic level of analysis, and by drawing from International Relations (IR) theory to deeper understand how alliances provide a value-added for countering disinformation, practitioners would be better positioned to respond to the disinformation that threaten democratic institutions and societies.
Countering Disinformation at the Strategic Level: Audiences, Alliances, and Applied Wargaming
Disinformation poses a unique and multifaceted threat to liberal democracies. Malign actors exploit societal vulnerabilities through hybrid tactics that combine overt and covert influence operations to destabilize institutions and erode public trust. While awareness of these threats has grown, current counter-disinformation efforts among Western allies remain fragmented and largely focused on operational or tactical responses. Strategic coordination across governments, civil societies, and private sectors is urgently needed to strengthen resilience and safeguard democratic values. This symposium examines disinformation at the strategic level, where decisions shape long-term policy, alliance posture, and whole-of-society resilience. Unlike tactical or operational approaches, strategic-level analysis addresses systemic vulnerabilities, multinational coordination, and enduring deterrence measures—dimensions essential for countering adversarial campaigns that transcend borders and domains. Existing gaps persist in understanding how disinformation operates across societies, how alliances can amplify resilience, and how strategic options can be tested before implementation. To address these gaps, the symposium brings together three perspectives. The first explores adversarial targeting of diaspora communities, highlighting why audience vulnerabilities matter for national security and resilience. The second examines alliances as strategic enablers, emphasizing their role in pooling resources and aligning policies to deter and counter disinformation collectively. The third introduces an analytical wargaming framework to experiment with multinational courses of action, revealing friction points and informing strategic decision-making. Together, these approaches provide a comprehensive picture of the disinformation threat and pathways to counter it. By combining insights on vulnerable audiences, alliance-based strategies, and structured experimentation, this symposium aims to inform integrated approaches that enhance democratic resilience, strengthen multinational coordination, and deter adversarial influence campaigns at their source.
Geopolitical Dynamics in the Middle East (The New Decade)
The geopolitical dynamics of the Middle East in the new decade reflect a complex interplay of shifting alliances, emerging power centers, and the redefinition of traditional security and economic frameworks. The region is undergoing transformations driven by global competition, regional rivalries, and the growing influence of non-state actors. Factors such as energy security, technological competition, and the ramifications of climate change introduce additional layers to an already intricate geopolitical environment. Furthermore, external powers—including the United States, Russia, and China—continue to exert significant influence on regional trajectories, shaping political orientations and strategic calculations. Intra-regional relations, marked by normalization initiatives, renewed tensions, and fragile cooperative efforts, remain central to understanding the evolving landscape. A comprehensive assessment of these dynamics requires an interdisciplinary analytical approach that integrates political, economic, and security dimensions. The decade ahead is poised to bring about a reconfiguration of Middle Eastern geopolitics, where adaptability and strategic recalibration will play defining roles in determining the stability, agency, and influence of both state and non-state actors.
Identities, Integration, and Deviance: Lived Experiences of Filipino KPOP Fandom Members
The idolization of individuals for a particular subject creates a shared identity and group, such as fandom. Despite differences among members within a fandom, this collective identity provides a space globally where groups of people perform and reinforce their shared passion, ultimately becoming fans and fandom members. Considering its growing relevance, this study contributes to the increasing body of research on fandom by exploring members’ individual beliefs, motivations, values, and purposes, as well as their effects on sustaining one's identity as a fan and the group's identity as a fandom. This study examines the impact of individual differences on the level of devotion and participation in fandom activities and identities using semi-structured interviews with six identified fan and fandom members of any Korean Popular group from a specific highly urbanized geographic location in Laguna, Philippines. The transcribed data were analyzed using traditional Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The findings highlight the significant role of individual differences in shaping the intensity of fan engagement. Furthermore, fandom members integrate better mainly on the degree of social influence and personal attachment. The quality of relationships formed within the fandom is also a massive factor in a fan’s self-ascription process and may determine the length of their fanship’s duration. In conclusion, the study separates the analysis of fandoms from previous rigid organizational social theories, moving towards a view of fan and fandom membership as a temporary identity ascribed by a person from a particular period.
Copyright (c) 2025 Proceeding of the International Conference on Political Sciences
Exploring the Theories of Women’s Political Leadership: Changing Contours of Governance in South Asia
The contemporary political discourses have acknowledged the importance of women’s autonomy and gender equality. However, women are conveniently sidelined in the political realm and process, despite the roles they play in society and their claims of equality in all areas of life. Women are not given the same opportunities to enjoy life as men, despite several laws, regulations, and government awareness initiatives. In the political, cultural, educational, and socioeconomic domains of their existence, they experience marginalisation and discrimination. Popular concepts of nature and culture, public and private, reason and emotion, and modern and primitive become analytical features that allow gender to play a role in forming both individual and collective identities. Within this complexity of social development, an overview of female political leadership in South Asia must be placed, with particular attention paid to the opportunities, gaps, negotiations, and resistances of “women”. The current study provides a framework for understanding how gender politics influence the development of the political category "woman" and how the demands, interests, and concerns of this category are characterized throughout various South Asian nations. This article aims to provide an overview of female political leadership in South Asia, drawing on the broader corpus of feminist literature, particularly South Asian feminist scholarship, in the context of changing governance contours.
Re/defining the Settler-colonial Ideologies/definitions to Safeguard the Bayung Rai Cultures, Language, and Identity in Nepal
Indigenous peoples of Nepal, known as Indigenous groups or nationalities, underwent oppression, repression, and domination, experiencing enormous harm to their cultures, languages, and lands. The settler-colonial people (also known as Indo-Aryans) as rulers coerced colonial ideologies to suppress Indigenous peoples and exterminate their Identity in Nepal. The confiscation of Indigenous traditional lands, restrictions on speaking Indigenous languages and celebrating cultures, and expulsion from the political mainstream are a few examples to name. This paper focuses on the Bayung Rai people, underpinning the lingual and cultural adverse impacts and raises two research questions: (a) How did the Khas-Aryans impose dominant ideologies to erase the Indigenous Bayung Rai cultures and language in Nepal? and (b) How did Khas-Aryans’ political hegemony dominate the Bayung Rai Identity? The exploration of these questions aims to redefine colonial ideologies from the Bayung perspectives as resistance against oppression and hence to reinvigorate the Bayung Rai Identity. This research exploits decolonial perspectives to investigate different forms of colonial systemic and epistemic violence, dismantling the colonial set-ups. It therefore applies Tribal Critical theory to critically scrutinise the colonial behaviours and employs decoloniality as methodology to examine the historical contexts, i.e., prohibiting or demeaning Bayung cultures and erasing Bayung toponyms in their traditional lands. It also utilises the narrative inquiry to encompass intergenerational experiences or stories of domination and hatred. Thematic analysis is performed to thoroughly analyse the primary data obtained from free conversation and the secondary data from existing literature. This research thus contributes to the Indigenous and academic communities by: (a) investigating the settler-colonial domination and oppression of the Bayung people, including other Indigenous peoples; (b) safeguarding the Indigenous Identity through knowledge creation; and (c) helping the Indigenous Peoples and the dominant group (settler) for respectful reconciliation, leading to Indigenisation.
Decolonizing the Philippine Education System: Perspectives in Student Learning and Engagement
The colonial powers had long profoundly influenced colonized nations' education systems, including the Philippines. With its severe impacts on various aspects of individual, community, and national construction, there were multiple ongoing documented and undocumented individual and group movements from different intellectual elites in response to our heavily colonized systems. With recent macro-level research on projecting the future of the Philippines in decolonizing its systems, classroom teachers' individual efforts to introduce and practice decolonization need more documentation and analysis to construct an image of a national narrative of decolonizing movement into our education systems. With almost half a decade of integration into current practice, the study used autoethnography to form an analysis of the lived experience of decolonizing Social Sciences classes in Senior High School, including the perceived impacts on learner development and appreciation of Humanities and Social Science Strand students. Analysis revealed that decolonized practices and integration in the classroom lead to students fostering active engagement in class discussions, regaining confidence in the critical exchange of ideas in task creation, and deepening the realization of the relevance of local knowledge. It was found that learning experience better prepares them for different research competencies, although further investigation is needed to prove the relevance of the observation. The research underscores the need to look into other practices and consider whether individual efforts can be made and whether they are being applied in public education systems.
Franchisee Politics and Elite Bargains: Analyzing TMC Governance in West Bengal Through the Political Settlement Framework
This paper applies the Political Settlement Framework (PSF), developed by Mushtaq H. Khan, to analyze the political durability and governance strategy of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal. Moving beyond dominant lenses such as populism, clientelism, and identity politics, the paper argues that the TMC’s rule is best understood as a strategic elite bargain, where power is distributed across symbolic leadership and decentralized brokers. The study uses the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme—a monthly cash transfer program for women—as a case study to illustrate how welfare policy reinforces elite stability and mass dependency within the political settlement. Through this lens, the TMC’s governance emerges not simply as affective populism but as a durable and exclusionary order shaped by informal power arrangements and strategic resource distribution. The PSF allows for a structural understanding of why certain institutions persist and others fail, and why reforms in sectors like manufacturing or education remain weak. This paper concludes that sustainable institutional reform in West Bengal must account for the political settlement underpinning the state’s governance model, where informal authority and mass appeasement operate in tandem. The study contributes to the broader literature on state capacity, elite negotiation, and the institutional dynamics of subnational politics in India.
Filipina Gen Z Women's Determined Impacts on their Ligaw (Courtship) Experiences
Panliligaw the traditional Filipino courtship practice, remains an integral part of Filipino romantic relationships, yet existing studies often focus on the experiences of the man (nanliligaw) rather than the woman (nililigawan) being pursued despite their equally important roles. As a result, there is a lack of existing studies documenting how women experience and interpret panliligaw. Thus, this study seeks to document the lived experiences of single heterosexual Filipino Gen Z women aged 25-27 who have experienced panliligaw and examine its effects on their identity, self-perception, relationships, and societal roles through semi-structured interviews which are then further analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as guided by Prospero Covar’s Loob at Labas framework. Findings reveal that women’s decisions and actions driven by self-perception and personal values resulted in the following experiences on panliligaw: an increase in self-esteem, a boost in energy levels, openness to new connections, more positive demeanor, and improved interaction within social settings. These findings suggest a shift from traditional courtship structures to a more mutual and reciprocal process where women take on more active and autonomous roles rather than what society dictates. In essence, panliligaw is not solely centered around men proving their worth as society depicts, but also on how women ultimately end up with the final decision over the trajectory of panliligaw. Hence, this study amplifies women’s voices in panliligaw by emphasizing their equally significant role in shaping contemporary Filipino romantic relationships.
Theorizing Filipino Concept of Pahinga (Rest)
The heavily industrialized society in the Philippines has brought about a cultural change in the lifestyle and mindset of Filipino people focused on their needs. This has resulted in a civilization that forcibly embraces a never-ending work world —the lack of pahinga (rest). Contributing to constructing local knowledge and paradigms, this paper aims to interpret the Filipino epistemology of rest, pahinga, from the existing narratives of workers and members of various social institutions such as family, education, and economy. Using qualitative research and phenomenological methods, the researchers spoke to participants aged 28-44, using semi-structured approaches or pakikipagkwentuhan, to find out about their way of rest and how they achieve it. Employing interpretative phenomenological analysis traditions, the study found that of those interviewed, pahinga (rest) had different dimensions, including the rest of the labas (body) and loob (mind). Participants of the research generally mentioned that it seems that because of the obligation of performing as a member of their family and society, their rest is almost non-existent or limited. In conclusion, associated concepts interrelated to theorizing pahinga have been found: pagod (fatigue), sarili (self), lipunan (society), and ginhawa (relief). People tend to prioritize survival than valuing the importance of social, psychological, and physical rest —revealing systemic problems faced by groups of Filipinos in current modern society.
Exit, Intervention, and Inequality: Understanding Secularism and Social Justice in India
Secularism is regarded as a remedy for the challenges of accommodating religious diversity while ensuring peaceful coexistence and social justice. Since ensuring social justice requires state intervention, it is perceived as inconsistent with secularism. However, scholars like Bhargava and Chandhoke do not perceive mild state intervention as inconsistent with secular values, but rather as a distinctive feature of Indian secularism. Whereas in a liberal secular framework, tolerance is considered to be the core value that discourages state intervention in religious affairs. Melidoro holds that liberalism’s primary objective is to protect diversity rather than to establish equality or justice. He argues that the state should refrain from intervening in comprehensive doctrines—liberal or illiberal—and instead ensure that individuals can exercise their right to exit oppressive social structures. He considers exiting an oppressive community as sufficient for peaceful coexistence. This paper challenges Melidoro’s claim, arguing that in the Indian context, due to the caste system, the exit right is insufficient. The rigid social structure of caste makes it difficult for individuals to truly escape oppressive conditions, even after leaving their communities. To support this argument, the paper examines B.R. Ambedkar’s arguments on conversion as a form of exit, alongside his strong advocacy for state intervention to protect marginalized groups. Through this inquiry, the paper evaluates the limitations of the liberal neutrality approach and argues for a context-sensitive model of secularism that recognizes the necessity of ensuring peaceful coexistence as well as social justice.
From Universities, Streets, to Contemporary Society Heroes: Becoming, Being, and Living as Women Activist
Historically, women faced patterns of prejudice and gender-based oppression, resulting in the denial of their fundamental rights. Through years of ingrained subordination under authoritarian regimes, activism birthed various movements and organizations that sought liberation. As militant groups gained traction, withstanding large-scale issues, women’s struggles were seldom addressed within nationalist movements. Literature has documented the roots of activism, women’s organizations, and the socio-political conditions throughout Philippine history. However, there is a narrow understanding of women’s experiences and how these mold their individual identities in response to shared struggles. This study attempts to create a local framework elucidating the motivations and drivers behind women’s activism. This narrative study conducted semi-structured interviews with an aged female activist who claimed to be a university graduate, living a moderate lifestyle. Through a modified thematic analysis using Braun and Clarke (2006), findings revealed her profound worldviews, motivations, and ideologies. Recounting her experiences, the participant’s lifelong commitment to activism emerged as a notable discovery. Becoming, being, and living as an activist was a voluntary choice to discover, assert, and sustain her praxis. Through adaptations of the framework, future studies should continue to explore additional narratives of women, anti-imperialist, self-ascribed activists who work towards attaining an equitable society. By asserting their identities, affirming their actions, and nurturing their efforts towards nation-building, women’s narratives serve as a stark implication that they survived amidst adversity. Hence, ‘becoming’ a woman activist transcends past experiences and struggles as she lives a life committed to meaningful change.
The Challenges of Accountability in Democracy: A Comparative Study of Donald Trump’s 2021 Impeachment and Jair Bolsonaro’s 2023 Electoral Trial
Following Donald Trump's defeat in the U.S. 2020 presidential election, his supporters stormed the Capitol under the false belief of electoral fraud, leading to his second impeachment. Similarly, Jair Bolsonaro spread unsubstantiated claims about Brazil’s electoral system during the 2022 presidential election, and after his loss, his supporters attacked the Three Powers Plaza, resulting in the former president's electoral trial. However, while Trump was acquitted and later reelected, Bolsonaro was declared ineligible to hold office until 2030. This study explores the reasons behind these divergent outcomes, challenging the assumption that stronger democracies ensure more effective accountability. Using process tracing, we analyze the accountability mechanisms in the U.S. and Brazil through three key explanatory variables: (1) the normative framework governing oversight institutions, (2) the electoral system within which these institutions operate, and (3) prevailing national conceptions of democracy. By systematically comparing these cases, we aim to provide insights into how institutional design and democratic perceptions shape accountability in different political contexts, and ultimately impact how accountable an incumbent truly is.
Employment Status and Evaluation of Government Performance: Evidence from China
Evaluation of government performance of citizens is crucial for regime stability as it could help authoritarian regimes to identify and address brewing problems before they fuel public discontent. It can also act as a potential mechanism for improving government performance and public services and establishing good image of government. Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese government has adopted the zero-covid policy to keep cases as close to zero as possible until December 2022. The pandemic is a shock that impact the all the people, and it could have far-reaching consequences; therefore, the understanding of public evaluation of Chinese government’s zero-covid policy is crucial for overall evaluation of government performance. China encountered a huge economic burden during the pandemic. China’s job market also faced big pressure from the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many private companies in China closed, which are the primary source of employment. The unemployment problem was more severe among the youth workforces. Therefore, using evidence from China at both the individual and provincial levels, this study aims to examine the impact of employment status on public evaluation of government performance during the Covid-19 pandemic in China with multilevel analysis. The results reveal that being employed is negatively correlated with the evaluation of government performance and the evaluation of the medical system's performance in terms of COVID-19 containment. Additionally, this study also employs causal mediation analysis to infer relationships between employment status, public evaluation of government performance, and political trust. The research finding has implications for public policy in China.
Effects and Limitations of the Interaction between Public Attribution and Offensive Cyber Operations on Cyber Deterrence by Punishment Rethinking of the Risk of Retaliation
From the perspective of a cyber defender, the matter of dealing with cyberattacks is of the paramount importance. Nevertheless, the most efficient strategy to be adopted is one of prevention, i.e. the deterrence of cyberattacks before they occur. J. Nye describes deterrence as a psychological process that depends on the perceptions of both attacker and defender, and the ability to communicate these perceptions with clarity. In recent years, public attribution (PA) has become a prevalent and substantial method of articulating the defender's intentions. Nevertheless, the efficacy of PA in terms of cyber deterrence does not appear to exceed the anticipated level. Conversely, since 2016, the initiation of deployment of Offensive Cyber Operations (OCO) has been progressively disclosed to the public, along with the announcement of PA. This has compelled attackers and third parties contemplating or intending to attack to reassess the cost-effectiveness of doing so, thus raising the threshold for such actions. The paper therefore uses 2016 as a divided point of comparison, with the aim of clarifying the combination of OCO and PA to be effective. The study concludes that the effectiveness of cyber deterrence through punishment is beginning to be demonstrated in the context of states and state-sponsored hacker groups.
Design of a Standardized Index to Evaluate the Democratic Quality of Participatory Processes: A Participant-Centered Approach
Participatory processes have proliferated within contemporary democracies, generating an increasing need for rigorous evaluation tools to assess their democratic quality (Fung, 2015; Smith, 2009). Despite the abundance of empirical studies and theoretical frameworks, the scientific literature reveals a persistent absence of standardized instruments capable of systematically evaluating these processes according to established democratic criteria (Rowe & Frewer, 2004). This research, conducted at the University of Valencia, seeks to address this gap by developing a standardized Democratic Quality Index applicable to participatory processes at the local level, with potential for broader national and international application. The originality of the proposed index lies in its two-stage structure: a pre-questionnaire assessing participants' expectations, followed by a main questionnaire evaluating their perceptions of democratic quality across seven key dimensions. The methodological design follows a sequential mixed-methods approach. First, a scoping review identified relevant dimensions and indicators in the literature (Moysan & Ródenas, 2024). Second, a Delphi panel of international experts refined these indicators. Third, empirical validation is underway through factorial analyses of data collected in participatory processes in France and Spain, with results expected by June 2025. This index generates a weighted score reflecting alignment with participants’ expectations, thereby addressing critiques of presumed universality in democratic evaluation (Parés & March, 2013). It contributes to the field of participatory democracy by bridging normative and empirical approaches (Abelson & Gauvin, 2006; Warren, 2017), offering a validated tool to evaluate, compare, and improve participatory processes in a contextualized and citizen-centered manner.
Service Quality and Competitive Advantage in Ghana’s Telecommunication Industry; Evidence of MTN Ghana
This study is conducted in the telecommunication sector in Ghana using MTN as a case study. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between service quality and competitive advantage in the telecom industry. The current study used quantitative descriptive research design to help determine the relationship between variables. This research used a self-administered questionnaire to quantify the impact of service quality constructs and competitive advantage. The study employed convenience sampling techniques with a sample size of 272 MTN users in Ghana. Data was analyzed using SPSS and Smart PLS. The results showed that customers have a positive view about customer service and convenience of MTN Ghana. The study also found that there is a statistically significant relationship between the two service quality dimensions namely: customer service and convenience and competitive advantage with respective to market share and profitability. This study can serve as guidance for current mobile operators in Ghana and new entrants who intend to enter the industry. This research aspires to contribute to the body of best practices for mobile service providers in Ghana.