This project seeks to explain the aggressive turn in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy after 2011, most drastically exemplified through its 2015 military intervention into Yemen. It does so through a two-case historical comparison between the Saudi interventions in Yemen in 1962 and 2015. Additionally, it compares the nature of internal regime survival strategies within the kingdom during these two distinct time periods of regional revolutionary upheaval: the Nasserist period of the late 1950s to 1960s and the time during and after the Arab uprisings in 2011. It makes the argument that, despite comparable internal and external threats in each time period, Saudi foreign policy is more openly aggressive in the contemporary period as a function of the regime’s ontologically weakened ideological legitimation. Whereas the Nasserist period offered an ontologically distinct threat in the form of a rival state ideology (secular Arab nationalism) that could be strategically co-opted and repressed by the Saudi regime, the Arab uprisings embodied a broader threat. This has included movements that have combined variations of both Islamism and liberal constitutionalism to challenge authoritarianism in the region. It has ultimately been threatening in part because of an ontological similarity to the regime’s own historic use of Islamic legitimacy. Thus, unlike the mediated Saudi approach to the Nasserist threat, the Saudi regime today has opportunistically engaged in an exaggerated aggression abroad as well as more deliberate, open displays of domestic repression at home. / Political Science

There is currently a global trend of democratic backsliding. The term democratic backsliding refers to the process in which a country undergoes a transition towards more authoritarian values and behavior. This process can weaken the democratic norms and institutions and can occur in democratic, hybrid, and nondemocratic regimes. Many countries around the world have been displaying nondemocratic tendencies for decades, but democratic backsliding is also transpiring in countries that have been democratic for an extended period of time. One country that has experienced forms of democratic backsliding is the United States of America, especially under the presidency of Donald Trump. The aim of this essay is to determine what authoritarian behavior Donald Trump engaged in during his presidential term from 2016 to 2020.  The theory on democratic backsliding by Bermeo as well as the four warning signs of authoritarian behavior by Levitsky and Ziblatt will be applied to conduct the research. The study is a qualitative case study, investigating each year of Donald Trump’s presidency. The results of this study indicate that Donald Trump did engage in authoritarian behavior during his presidential term.

This dissertation examines the process of limited political liberalisation in China by analysing the coexistence between critical journalists and the party-state under the Hu-Wen leadership. In contrast to the scholarship on authoritarianism and Chinese politics, which tends to analyse the perspectives of societal actors and the state separately from one another, this study brings the two together, unveiling the intricacies of their interactions. In the past decade, critical journalists and the party-state maintained a partnership which can be best described by a jazz ensemble metaphor. The players—critical journalists and the party-state—share a common purpose: improving their performance or governance within the existing political system. They overcome the limitations on their collaboration with ad hoc creative adjustments made in response to one another. The party-state acts as a band leader, setting the key by establishing a framework within which creative manoeuvring can take place. The study is based on unique access to politically sensitive material, including 120 in-depth interviews with critical journalists, media and crisis management experts, and government officials. It also includes multilayered textual analysis of the Chinese Communist Party journal, Qiushi, and investigative reports in two outspoken media outlets, Caijing and Nanfang Zhoumo. The data is employed to analyse the boundaries for limited political liberalisation of the media as well as how it manifests itself during major crisis events. More broadly, the dissertation draws the attention of both China and authoritarianism scholars to the significant yet neglected feature of interactive improvisation as a force that can sustain coexistence between critical actors and authoritarian states. It shows that by engaging in actor-driven analysis and illuminating the process of their interactions, we can better grasp the dynamics of authoritarianism in China and beyond. A step is made towards applying the analytical framework distilled in the China case on other authoritarian regimes by including a limited comparison to media–state relations under Gorbachev and under Putin. It shows that the variables of collaboration and improvisation are useful in explaining the different outcomes of political liberalisation reform.

This thesis endeavors to reveal that Martin Luther's dogmatic adherence to one absolute interpretation of the Word of God restricted man's freedom, both religious and personal. His intolerant and authoritarian attitude toward individualistic groups, called into existence by his polemics stressing Christian freedom, is broadly discussed. Luther's theology denied man responsibility for his salvation, either through works, the exercise of divine reason, or through living a lifestyle in the imitation of Christ, leaving man with the inability to accept responsibility for his actions. The authoritarian religions that developed after Luther brought confusion and indifference regarding the nature of religion, leaving modern man in search of alternate authorities in which to place his faith and assume responsibility for his actions, thereby limiting his independence and freedom.

Along with the right-left economical dimension of positioning of political parties and voters, there is also dimension of division along cultural and value items which is described as authoritarianism - libertarianism axis or sometimes conservatism - liberalism. In new democracies the division along clear support for liberal democracy on the one hand and support or toleration of non liberal use of power on the other hand is often very important. We distinguish between authoritarianism as orientation with tendency towards support for restrictive and hierarchical politics, which in some cases lead to non liberal variant of formally democratic order, and cultural conservatism, which has its roots mainly in higher level of religiosity. Authoritarian and conservative tendencies are to certain level associated with each other, nevertheless they do not create an integral complex. There is evidence of a group with authoritarian value orientation and culturally liberal position at the same time; in Slovak conditions it is the case of the electorate of left wing party Smer (Direction). Examining the opinion cleavage among Slovak public along cultural and value questions, we identify the biggest conflict potential of the authoritarian items as the mode of political rule and nationalism. Next significant...

La thèse aborde les processus de politisation de la minorité copte orthodoxe en Égypte. Ce cas illustre la question du communautarisme comme mode d'énonciation du politique, autrement dit, comme un bouclier de défense auquel les coptes ont eu recours pour lutter et survivre dans le cadre de l'autoritarisme républicain en Égypte. Dans cette perspective, nous proposons d'observer les différentes formes que prend le communautarisme copte, étroitement liées aux bouleversements qui marquent le champ politique égyptien. Elles sont conçues comme une réaction de la communauté à l'autoritarisme égyptien. Elles sont conçues comme une construction provenant des dynamiques des rapports entre le clergé et le pouvoir et une résultante des dynamiques intra-communautaires et inter- communautaires. Il s'agit de noter le souci d'une hiérarchie cléricale visant à répondre aux aspirations des fidèles marginalisés au niveau national, et dominés par son clergé au niveau communautaire. Cette thèse étudie la fragmentation communautaire, résultante des failles des équilibres entre l'Église et les autorités publiques, ce qui a permis l'émergence d'autres voies de mobilisation des acteurs coptes politisés. L'attention est portée sur les coptes profanes, longtemps ignorés et qui font leur entrée sur scène avec le Printemps Arabe. Ils proviennent des univers sociaux strictement contrôlés par l'Église et le régime en place et c'est l'imbrication de leurs divers processus de socialisation qui nous permet d'appréhender leur engagement différencié, ainsi que les bouleversements intra-communautaires provoqués par ces nouveaux entrants dans l'espace communautaire et l'espace public égyptien. / The thesis addresses the process of politicization of the Coptic Orthodox minority in Egypt. This case illustrates the issue of communitarianism as a mode of enunciation of politics, in other words, as a shield of defense to which the Copts resorted to struggle and survive within the framework of republican authoritarianism in Egypt. ln this perspective, we propose to observe the different forms taken by the Coptic community, closely related to the upheavals that mark the Egyptian political field. They are conceived as a reaction of the community to Egyptian authoritarianism. They are conceived as a construction resulting from the dynamics of the relations between the clergy and the political regime and a resultant of intra-community and inter-community dynamics. It is important to note the concern of a clerical hierarchy to respond to the aspirations of the marginalized Copts at the national level, and dominated by its clergy at the community level. This thesis studies community fragmentation, resulting from the flaws in the equilibrium between the Church and the public authorities, which allowed the emergence of other Coptic politicized paths and actors. Attention is paid to the secular Copts, who seem to launch their engagement with the Arab Spring. They come from social worlds strictly controlled by the Church and the State and it is the interweaving of their various processes of socialization that allows us to understand their engagement and activism as well as the intra-community upheavals caused by these new entrants in the community space as well as the Egyptian public space.

The purpose of this paper has been to describe the change of governance in Turkey from 2005 until 2018. The method that has been applied is a comparative study as well as a case study where a theory of democracy was used to describe and compare the changes of governance in Turkey between 2005 and 2018. Robert Dahls theory of democracy was used for this paper to determine the change in governance between the relevant years. The analysis of each institution for each year was than compared to finally determine any change in governance. The study showed that the governance of Turkey has taken further backsliding steps of democracy compared to the situation in 2005. The changes consist of a centralization and increase of power within the presidency and further limitations within some rights and freedoms. The possibility for citizens to engage in politics in different ways, to express the opinions whether good or bad, to search for alternative information and to have the right to vote in free and fair elections have all worsened in 2018 compared to 2005.

Trata-se de pesquisa teórica, de natureza histórica e conceitual, que analisa a configuração das instituições políticas municipais e federativas, a forma de assimilação dessas instituições políticas no Brasil e como se articularam à organização da educação nacional. Busca-se analisar como as idéias de município e de federação e a organização da educação foram se configurando no cenário político e institucional brasileiro e como ganharam materialidade a partir da promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988, que representou o ponto de convergência entre essas instituições políticas e a organização do ensino brasileiro. Com base no aporte teórico da Ciência Política, o trabalho discute os fundamentos conceituais e históricos da relação entre federalismo, poder local e educação, a partir da idéia original de federação concebida pelos fundadores do federalismo norte-americano – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton e John Jay -, dos conceitos de democracia de Alexis de Tocqueville e da idéia de federação total de Pierre- Joseph Proudhom, indicando a inadequação da associação direta que geralmente é feita entre regime federativo, descentralização e democratização. Partindo dessa constatação, o trabalho analisa a instituição municipal desde as suas origens em Roma -passando por seu funcionamento em Portugal- até a sua implantação em terras brasileiras, para comprovar que as instituições políticas municipais, transplantadas para o Brasil, não tinham o princípio basilar da autonomia local presente nas comunas européias, como no caso do self-governement anglosaxônico. Com essas evidências históricas, discutimos a organização do ensino, no que se refere à oferta de instrução elementar, em sua relação com as instituições políticas municipais e federativas, indicando a construção puramente ideológica – e também idealista – do discurso municipalista brasileiro desde a década de 1940, que foi retomado com vigor por ocasião do debate constituinte da década de 1980. Nesse debate, foi completamente desconsiderada toda uma tradição de pensamento político sobre a organização do Estado brasileiro que remonta à tradição liberal e descentralizadora de Tavares Bastos e Rui Barbosa, ao separatismo como solução dos conflitos entre centralização e descentralização política e à tradição autoritária e nacionalista do pensamento de Alberto Torres e de Oliveira Vianna, analisadas nesse trabalho para mostrar que o debate considerado pioneiro sobre a municipalização do ensino, entre Anísio Teixeira e Carlos Correa Mascaro, omitia essas tradições como se a organização do ensino em bases municipais estivesse descolada do debate sobre a organização do Estado brasileiro, omissão esta que marcará também o debate sobre a temática da década de 1980 até os nossos dias. As conclusões apontam para a necessidade de situar a descentralização municipalista atual no quadro mais amplo das contradições e complexidade do federalismo brasileiro. / This is a theoretical research, of historical and conceptual nature, which analyzes the configuration of municipal and federative political institutions, the way these political institutions were assimilated in Brazil and how they were articulated to the organization of national education. The text analyzes how the municipal and federative ideas and the organization of education have been formed in the Brazilian political and institutional scenario and how they have gained materiality since the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988, that represented the convergence point between these political institutions and the organization of Brazilian education. Based on the theoretical contribution of Political Science, this paper discusses the conceptual and historical basis of the relation between federalism, local power and education, based on the original idea of federation conceived by the founders of North-American federalism – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay –, on the concepts of democracy of Alexis de Tocqueville and on the idea of total federation of Pierre-Joseph Proudhom, indicating the inadequacy of direct association which is generally made between the federative system, decentralization and democratization. Based on this verification, this paper analyzes the municipal institution beginning at its origins in Rome – passing through its application in Portugal – until its implantation in Brazilian lands, to prove that the municipal political institutions, transplanted to Brazil, didn’t have the essential principle of local autonomy present in the European communes, as in the case of Anglo-Saxon selfgovernment. Based on these historical evidences, we discuss the organization of education, regarding the offer of elementary schooling, in its relationship with the municipal and federative political institutions, indicating the purely ideological – and also idealistic – construction of Brazilian municipalist speech in the 40’s, which was vigorously retaken at the time of the constituent debate in the 80’s. The tradition of political thought regarding the organization of the Brazilian State was completely disregarded during the mentioned debate, which goes back to the liberal and decentralizing tradition of Tavares Bastos and Rui Barbosa, to the separatism as a solution for the conflicts between political centralization and decentralization and to the authoritarian and nationalistic tradition of Alberto Torres and Oliveira Vianna. The above was analyzed in this paper to show that the debate, between Anísio Teixeira and Carlos Correa Mascaro, which is considered as a pioneer in the municipalization of teaching, has omitted these traditions as if the organization of teaching in municipal areas was disconnected from the debate on the organization of the Brazilian State – this omission will also mark the debate on this theme during the 80’s up to the present date. The conclusions point towards the need to place the current municipal decentralization within the larger picture of contradictions and complexity of the Brazilian federalism.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-08-16T14:03:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Danilo Pereira Lima_.pdf: 2474027 bytes, checksum: 51fa42e8f66a7a8b6a781cf624bd3054 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T14:03:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Danilo Pereira Lima_.pdf: 2474027 bytes, checksum: 51fa42e8f66a7a8b6a781cf624bd3054 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-21 / Nenhuma / Nenhum regime político autoritário sobrevive sem instrumentos jurídicos que organizem a aplicação de seus atos de exceção. Apesar dos governos militares terem se constituído por meio de um golpe civil-militar que destituiu o presidente João Goulart, durante os vinte e um anos de ditadura os generais que ocuparam a presidência da República jamais abandonaram a necessidade de dar aparência de Estado de Direito ao regime autoritário, sempre contando com o prestimoso verniz jurídico oferecido por seus juristas mais fiéis. Essa experiência autoritária exige uma análise sobre o papel desempenhado pelos juristas na construção de instrumentos normativos legitimadores da violência e da intolerância. Os juristas da ditadura assumiram a tarefa de organizar uma racionalidade jurídica destituída dos princípios que orientam o funcionamento do Estado de Direito, como a limitação do poder e a proteção das liberdades civis, políticas e sociais. No lugar de uma Constituição comprometida com o constitucionalismo, ajudaram a implantar uma engenharia constitucional fundamentada na doutrina de segurança nacional. Para realizar uma leitura crítica sobre a relação dos juristas com a ditadura militar, esta tese definiu sua análise em quatro momentos diferentes da atuação da comunidade jurídica, destacando a atividade “legislativa” daqueles que ajudaram a formular as leis e os atos de exceção; o trabalho teórico dos professores; a atividade judicial no âmbito do STF; e as ambiguidades dos advogados em relação ao Estado de exceção. O objetivo da tese é demonstrar que existiu uma cultura jurídica autoritária que influenciou a maior parte dos juristas durante a ditadura militar, sendo que essa postura se apoiou numa concepção instrumentalista do direito, que primeiramente autorizou o rompimento com a Constituição de 1946, para logo depois ajudar a definir uma engenharia constitucional autoritária que durante toda a ditadura militar serviu para dar uma certa aparência de Estado de Direito para os atos de exceção praticados pelos donos do poder. É claro que esse movimento não ocorreu sem rachaduras e, por isso mesmo, ao longo de toda a pesquisa também se destaca a atuação de juristas que romperam com a ditadura e passaram a condenar publicamente os atos de exceção. Contudo, apesar dos importantes casos de resistência no âmbito da comunidade jurídica, ainda assim é possível sustentar que uma cultura jurídica autoritária favoreceu uma maior conivência dos juristas com a exceção, contribuindo, assim, para o esfacelamento do Estado de Direito durante os anos de ditadura militar. Toda a análise crítica sobre essa relação dos juristas com a ditadura foi desenvolvida sob o marco teórico da Crítica Hermenêutica do Direito, de Lenio Streck. / No authoritarian regime survives without legal instruments that are capable of organising the application of their acts of exception. Even though the military regime in Brazil was constituted through a civil-military coup d’état that overthrew the President João Goulart, the generals that took office never abandoned the idea of making the authoritarian regime look like a state under the rule of law during the twenty-one years of dictatorship. Its most loyal jurists always provided this very specific kind of “legal mask”. Such an authoritarian experience calls for an analysis of the role of the legal scholars in the construction of normative instruments that legitimate violence and intolerance. The dictatorship jurists took over the role of organising a new form of legal theory, free of many principles that conduct a state under the rule of law, such as the limitations of power and the protection of civil, political and social liberties. Instead of a Constitution committed to the very idea of constitutionalism, they helped implementing a Constitution under the doctrine of national security. In order to analyse the relation of Brazilian jurists with the military regime, this thesis defined its focus in four different moments of the legal community. These are the “legislative” roles of those who helped in law making and the acts of exception; the theoretical work of the professors; the judicial activity in the Brazilian Supreme Court; and the ambiguities of the lawyers regarding the State of Exception. This work seeks to demonstrate that during the military regime an authoritarian legal culture influenced most of the Brazilian jurists. It was an instrumentalist view of law, influenced by this authoritarian legal culture, that first authorised the rupture with the 1946 Constitution and inaugurated a new authoritarian-constitutional logic, making it look like the acts of exception of those in power were all under the rule of law. This work also aims to highlight the jurists that actually did not support the dictatorship and publicly condemned the acts of exception. However, despite all the important episodes of resistance within the legal community, it is still possible to affirm that an authoritarian legal culture favoured the connivance of many jurists, contributing to the weakening of the rule of law during the years of military dictatorship. All of the critical analysis in the thesis was developed under the approach of Lenio Streck’s Hermeneutical Critique of Law.

Trata-se de pesquisa teórica, de natureza histórica e conceitual, que analisa a configuração das instituições políticas municipais e federativas, a forma de assimilação dessas instituições políticas no Brasil e como se articularam à organização da educação nacional. Busca-se analisar como as idéias de município e de federação e a organização da educação foram se configurando no cenário político e institucional brasileiro e como ganharam materialidade a partir da promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988, que representou o ponto de convergência entre essas instituições políticas e a organização do ensino brasileiro. Com base no aporte teórico da Ciência Política, o trabalho discute os fundamentos conceituais e históricos da relação entre federalismo, poder local e educação, a partir da idéia original de federação concebida pelos fundadores do federalismo norte-americano – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton e John Jay -, dos conceitos de democracia de Alexis de Tocqueville e da idéia de federação total de Pierre- Joseph Proudhom, indicando a inadequação da associação direta que geralmente é feita entre regime federativo, descentralização e democratização. Partindo dessa constatação, o trabalho analisa a instituição municipal desde as suas origens em Roma -passando por seu funcionamento em Portugal- até a sua implantação em terras brasileiras, para comprovar que as instituições políticas municipais, transplantadas para o Brasil, não tinham o princípio basilar da autonomia local presente nas comunas européias, como no caso do self-governement anglosaxônico. Com essas evidências históricas, discutimos a organização do ensino, no que se refere à oferta de instrução elementar, em sua relação com as instituições políticas municipais e federativas, indicando a construção puramente ideológica – e também idealista – do discurso municipalista brasileiro desde a década de 1940, que foi retomado com vigor por ocasião do debate constituinte da década de 1980. Nesse debate, foi completamente desconsiderada toda uma tradição de pensamento político sobre a organização do Estado brasileiro que remonta à tradição liberal e descentralizadora de Tavares Bastos e Rui Barbosa, ao separatismo como solução dos conflitos entre centralização e descentralização política e à tradição autoritária e nacionalista do pensamento de Alberto Torres e de Oliveira Vianna, analisadas nesse trabalho para mostrar que o debate considerado pioneiro sobre a municipalização do ensino, entre Anísio Teixeira e Carlos Correa Mascaro, omitia essas tradições como se a organização do ensino em bases municipais estivesse descolada do debate sobre a organização do Estado brasileiro, omissão esta que marcará também o debate sobre a temática da década de 1980 até os nossos dias. As conclusões apontam para a necessidade de situar a descentralização municipalista atual no quadro mais amplo das contradições e complexidade do federalismo brasileiro. / This is a theoretical research, of historical and conceptual nature, which analyzes the configuration of municipal and federative political institutions, the way these political institutions were assimilated in Brazil and how they were articulated to the organization of national education. The text analyzes how the municipal and federative ideas and the organization of education have been formed in the Brazilian political and institutional scenario and how they have gained materiality since the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988, that represented the convergence point between these political institutions and the organization of Brazilian education. Based on the theoretical contribution of Political Science, this paper discusses the conceptual and historical basis of the relation between federalism, local power and education, based on the original idea of federation conceived by the founders of North-American federalism – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay –, on the concepts of democracy of Alexis de Tocqueville and on the idea of total federation of Pierre-Joseph Proudhom, indicating the inadequacy of direct association which is generally made between the federative system, decentralization and democratization. Based on this verification, this paper analyzes the municipal institution beginning at its origins in Rome – passing through its application in Portugal – until its implantation in Brazilian lands, to prove that the municipal political institutions, transplanted to Brazil, didn’t have the essential principle of local autonomy present in the European communes, as in the case of Anglo-Saxon selfgovernment. Based on these historical evidences, we discuss the organization of education, regarding the offer of elementary schooling, in its relationship with the municipal and federative political institutions, indicating the purely ideological – and also idealistic – construction of Brazilian municipalist speech in the 40’s, which was vigorously retaken at the time of the constituent debate in the 80’s. The tradition of political thought regarding the organization of the Brazilian State was completely disregarded during the mentioned debate, which goes back to the liberal and decentralizing tradition of Tavares Bastos and Rui Barbosa, to the separatism as a solution for the conflicts between political centralization and decentralization and to the authoritarian and nationalistic tradition of Alberto Torres and Oliveira Vianna. The above was analyzed in this paper to show that the debate, between Anísio Teixeira and Carlos Correa Mascaro, which is considered as a pioneer in the municipalization of teaching, has omitted these traditions as if the organization of teaching in municipal areas was disconnected from the debate on the organization of the Brazilian State – this omission will also mark the debate on this theme during the 80’s up to the present date. The conclusions point towards the need to place the current municipal decentralization within the larger picture of contradictions and complexity of the Brazilian federalism.