This diploma thesis deals with the process of oligarchization of Bulgaria after 1989. The collapse of the communist regime had created the opportunities for the emergence of a small group of ultra-wealthy citizens who had been to a varying degree involved in the process of policy decision-making therefore one can speak of oligarchy. The aim of the study is to offer a complex insight into the Bulgarian oligarchy in the years 1989-1997 while using the theoretical perspective of an American political scientist Jeffrey Winters. The other objective is to apply the parameters established by Winters for the purpose of the research of this phenomenon to the Bulgarian case in order to further develop his typology of oligarchies. The thesis put Bulgarian oligarchy into the broader context of the structural changes that took place in the country within the examined period. Based upon the analysis of the strategies for wealth defence, the thesis then presents the uniqueness of Bulgarian oligarchy. The central finding of this study is that, within one country, the oligarchs can adopt diverse strategies for wealth defence and thus one cannot speak of oligarchy in singular. The main contribution then lies in the introduction of two new types of oligarchy: aggressive and moderate.

<p>The study explores how struggles for social justice by Guatemalan and Ecuadorian indigenous peasant movements are affected by ethno-politics (the strategic political use of ethnicity), by using a comparative historical approach incorporating structural change and strategic agency. The analysis revolves around the partly enduring, partly changing oligarchic structures. The choice of the countries rests primarily upon the composition of their respective oligarchic classes. In Guatemala, the despotic agrarian oligarchs have dominated for much of the past century; whereas in Ecuador, the oligarchy was divided into an agrarian and a modernist fraction.</p><p>Scholars often locate ethnic politicisation in Latin America within the context of a shift from ‘national popular’ and ‘corporatist’ political orders toward political and economic liberalisation. This shift supposedly unleashed ethnic identities which were previously subordinated by the way indigenous communities were politically incorporated. This study shows that dramatic openings for ethnic politicisation in the 1990s occurred where corporatism had been weak and oligarchic structures persisted. But the elites were unable to use ethnicity as a tool for hegemonic control. Due to the oligarchic legacy, class discourses could not be prevented from being reproduced, and ethnic ones were politicised in a way that is dysfunctional to the elites’ effort to politically disarm the rural poor. Another finding is that the persisting influence of the agrarian oligarchy made the Guatemalan movement more focused on the land struggle and more unwilling/unable to integrate into the political arena prescribed by those in control of the state. In Ecuador, the demise of the agrarian oligarchy and the rise of a strong neo-liberal fraction constituted the context within which the movement moved away from the land struggle. It accessed the ethno-political spaces more firmly but resembled the Guatemalan movement in keeping its strategy of mass mobilisation.</p>

The study explores how struggles for social justice by Guatemalan and Ecuadorian indigenous peasant movements are affected by ethno-politics (the strategic political use of ethnicity), by using a comparative historical approach incorporating structural change and strategic agency. The analysis revolves around the partly enduring, partly changing oligarchic structures. The choice of the countries rests primarily upon the composition of their respective oligarchic classes. In Guatemala, the despotic agrarian oligarchs have dominated for much of the past century; whereas in Ecuador, the oligarchy was divided into an agrarian and a modernist fraction. Scholars often locate ethnic politicisation in Latin America within the context of a shift from ‘national popular’ and ‘corporatist’ political orders toward political and economic liberalisation. This shift supposedly unleashed ethnic identities which were previously subordinated by the way indigenous communities were politically incorporated. This study shows that dramatic openings for ethnic politicisation in the 1990s occurred where corporatism had been weak and oligarchic structures persisted. But the elites were unable to use ethnicity as a tool for hegemonic control. Due to the oligarchic legacy, class discourses could not be prevented from being reproduced, and ethnic ones were politicised in a way that is dysfunctional to the elites’ effort to politically disarm the rural poor. Another finding is that the persisting influence of the agrarian oligarchy made the Guatemalan movement more focused on the land struggle and more unwilling/unable to integrate into the political arena prescribed by those in control of the state. In Ecuador, the demise of the agrarian oligarchy and the rise of a strong neo-liberal fraction constituted the context within which the movement moved away from the land struggle. It accessed the ethno-political spaces more firmly but resembled the Guatemalan movement in keeping its strategy of mass mobilisation.

La Costituzione degli Ateniesi, tramandataci dalla tradizione tra le opere di Senofonte, ha suscitato nel corso del tempo un considerevole interesse tra gli studiosi del mondo greco. All’opera, a partire dal XIX secolo, sono state dedicate analisi di natura filologica, linguistica e storica, e, in tempi più recenti, un elevato numero di commenti. Oggetto della riflessione dell’Autore – dichiaratamente ostile al regime politico in vigore ad Atene – sono i meccanismi costitutivi e funzionali della democrazia. L’opera propone una riflessione economico-politica di notevole rilievo teorico il cui intento, esplicitato fin dall’incipit, è di mostrare come il tipo di politeia scelto ad Atene – in cui è il demos a detenere il κράτος e, per questo, ad ἄμεινον πράττειν –, per quanto disprezzabile, funziona con successo. Il breve pamphlet costituisce per noi, dunque, una testimonianza fondamentale sul concreto funzionamento del sistema politico ateniese, sull’intelaiatura ideologica che lo sosteneva, nonché sulla resistenza teorica elaborata e propugnata dai sostenitori del pensiero antidemocratico. Tuttavia, la piena comprensione di tale fondamentale testimonianza risulta subordinata alla risoluzione delle questioni nodali dell’opera - quali cronologia, paternità, natura, destinazione, e finalità dello scritto – che, lungi dall’aver raggiunto un chiarimento definitivo, sono ancora oggi ampiamente dibattute. Il presente studio, pertanto, si è proposto di indagare, nella produzione letteraria superstite, quelle opere strettamente connesse alla sfera politica che, per pertinenza e rilevanza, mostrassero una certa affinità tematica con il pamphlet, rimandando verisimilmente a soggetti e motivi di riflessione comuni. Tra la vasta produzione letteraria politica del V secolo la presente ricerca si è incentrata in particolare sulla storiografia tucididea, quale testimone imprescindibile della situazione poleica della seconda metà del secolo, e la produzione teatrale, comica e tragica, che, riproducendo dibattiti culturali, attriti sociali e civili contemporanei, traduce in scena il linguaggio della polis. Il metodo analitico impiegato ha tentato di coniugare la ricerca tematica e l’indagine linguistica: la ricognizione di tipo contenutistico è stata affiancata da un’analisi del materiale linguistico, con l’intento di valutare la pregnanza di elementi tematici o tratti linguistici comuni nella loro dimensione comunicativa e sociale. Se, infatti, l’accostamento analogico sulla base della comunanza dei motivi proposti dai diversi testi permette di ricomporre il complesso di circostanze e avvenimenti in cui l’interesse per un dato tema si è sviluppato, le osservazioni linguistiche (e semantiche più in particolare) forniscono informazioni importanti circa il sistema culturale e ideologico delle nostre fonti. Dopo una prima definizione della problematica cronologica e d’attribuzione dell’opera, il presente lavoro, dunque, esamina il linguaggio politico impiegato nell’Athenaion Politeia, tramite un confronto, anche lessicale, con le opere che riflettono maggiormente l’opposta ideologia democratico-periclea, tra cui l’epitafio pericleo riportato da Thuc. II 35-46 e la prima produzione euripidea. Segue un raffronto puntuale tra il testo del pamphlet e i discorsi periclei riportati nei primi due libri dell’opera tucididea. L’indagine su uno dei temi portanti del libello, ovvero la politica imperiale esercitata dal regime democratico e le relazioni con gli alleati è stata effettuata tramite il confronto con le commedie aristofanee degli anni Venti del V secolo, in particolare Cavalieri e Vespe. Puntuali consonanze tematiche sono state riscontrate, inoltre, nella produzione comica frammentaria (di Aristofane, Teleclide, Ermippo, Eupoli), cui è dedicata una specifica sezione del lavoro. Lo studio di contestualizzazione ha dunque permesso di fissare le differenti opere prese in esame, e l’Athenaion Politeia in primis, in una rete di rapporti e condizionamenti, la cui valutazione risulta imprescindibile per una lettura circostanziata della letteratura politica ateniese.

The usage of the word oligarch has been growing rapidly in Swedish newspapers since the fall of the Soviet Union. In this study, I will examine the way Swedish newspapers have been using the word, in what I asses as a biased way.     Previous research has shown that the word is applicable in a much wider space, and that other countries or parts of the world contains cases of oligarchs. The word oligarch is actually old, it comes from ancient Greece and its renowned philosophers, originally made up to describe when the power of a democracy lies in the hands of only a few. Today, it seems that the word has been heavily associated (almost exclusively), with Russian businessmen. Many whom made their fortune during the turmoil between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the republic of Russia switching from a communist economy to a capitalistic state.    There lies certain power in actions, as so in words. To misinterpret, applicate or to use words and situations with the intention of self-advocacy could be dangerous, especially when done so by a force capable of influencing the minds of the masses. The words we use affect our way of interpreting things, in turn, how people interpret, think and conversate about topics and such are called discourse. Critical discourse analysis works as a theory, or method to critically examine the ways that we discuss about these so-called discourses, and how the debate about the topics develop in our society.    Ultimately, by looking into the way three big and influential Swedish newspapers reported on the topic of oligarchs for almost thirty years, we will see how the discourse of the oligarchs develop. This study will work as an insight into the actual discourse and shed light on how institutions such as our news reporting need to be consistently checked in order to be held accountable before their presentation. It is important as it affects the way that we think and interact with each other. Ultimately, from a historical perspective, active discourses like these are things that can put dirty stains on our history. Instead of keeping them alive, we should remind ourselves of our preconceptions, to avoid further alienation amongst people.

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