• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2012

The popularity of the Internet has affected international politics in many ways; however, it is seemingly overlooked by most scholars, and in particular, realists who view the Internet as low-politics. This article argues that the impact of the Internet on international politics should not be underestimated. By focusing on the capabilities of the Internet in general and P2P networks in particular, this paper shows how the Internet is able to disseminate soft power resources. This is demonstrated by an examination of the dissemination of Japanese soft power resources through BitTorrent. Finally, it is concluded that the Internet is a plausible agent for distributing the resources of soft power; however, once disseminated, soft power resources do not always transform into soft power. In the end, contextual conditions within states always apply.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-56
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• 2009

It is generally acknowledged that Philippines politics has achieved a basic soil for democracy at the macro-level by the two incidents of 'People Power' (1986 & 2001). However, in spite of such an achievement, Philippine politics at the micro-level, does not enjoy the same reputation. Institutionalized 'Bossism' or 'patron/clientelism' political culture has been attributed to make such a gap. This paper aims to bridge the gap by a longitudinal observation on local politics of a particular province in the Philippines. Surigao del Norte is the province picked up for the study. The reason why this particular province attracts special concerns is that there appears to come a very dynamic local politics, led by an indigenous Christian organization, the PBMA (Philippines Benevolent Missionary Association), which was founded in the mid 1960s. With the coming of the organization in the province, the political power of the traditional families has been narrowed. On the other hand, new families, not only the leader family of the PBMA but also the family allied with the PBMA, has expanded political influence. Following steps are adopted to understand the meaning of such a change. First, institutional frame of Philippine politics and elections will be reviewed. Second, demographic changes will be investigated on Surigao del Norte province to find out how popular the PBMA organization is among the people. Third, local election outcomes will be examined to describe the changing nature of political landscape of the province. This will reveal how the relationship between the old and new families has been developed in the province. Lastly, based on the facts discovered by a longitudinal observation, an attempt to evaluate theories on Philippines politics will be made Conclusions are as follows. To understand the dynamics of Philippine politics, 'expectations from the below,' or, 'passions of the people,' suggested by Ileto, needs more attention. Furthermore, 'mutual accommodation' between domination and resistance, coined by Abinales, also demands more appreciation. The case of local politics in the Surigao del Norte, with the coming of the PBMA, is sure to show a concrete example of changing politics in the 'changeless land.'

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.131-158
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• 2009

20 years has passed since June democratization movement of 1987 that made the representative system worked democratically on the basis of free election politics. So far, democratic movement bloc has been elected to government power at least two times. Conservative bloc of old ruling forces made a peaceful re-turn-over and grasped the government power. It looks that electoral democracy has been working very well. But people's distrust in Korean politics is not decreasing. Recently, crisis of representation is discussed. Korean representative system faces the dual tasks. One originates from the delay of institutional reform, another from the change of political circumstances. This paper diagnose the Korean representative democracy of today, focusing on those dual tasks. Especially, it is proposed to reform the present Korean presidentialism of winner-takes-all power structure. It is also to resolve the problem of Korean parliamentary politics deeply depending on the presidency.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-26
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• 2018

This paper aims to examine the performativity of street politics through Suffragette. The movie exposes the bloody violence of Britain government and shows the militant suffragettes and their resistance against it. It also deals with history and 'story'of labor class suffragettes for political rights. The paper shows how the movie is re-born as an indexical art and the street politics makes the plural performativity. Most of all, it reads the difference between the government's violence wielded as a power to suppress the suffragettes and bring them to their knees, and the suffragettes's violence having the resistant and emancipated revolution. We can realize that the suffragettes used the mode of visibility to expose its incompetence and make their emancipated violence into the indexical force. And we can see the variations of street politics from the acts of Davison, Maud, and Violet.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.599-619
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• 2008

Korean peninsula has a long history and a geopolitical location as a buffer tone, which has provided the conditions for cultural dynamism and diversity across space and time. The changing processes of place names in Korea is considered to be better suited to the study on cultural politics that is interested in the culture wars over the meaning of culture among different social subjects. In order to ensure the legitimacy of cultural politics for the study of place names in Korea, this study attempts to make a theoretical construction based on the concepts of place identity, territorial contestation, and the politics of scale. Cultural and linguistic theories to be best applied to the study of place names in Korea are the theories on Angehm's and Castells' identity, $P{\hat{e}}cheux's$ identification, Hall's decoding, and Voloshinov's ideological sign. Power relations involved in the inclusion and exclusion are necessarily concerned with the process of constructing a place identity or territorial identity by means of a place name, which represents identity and ideology of a social subject. In the examination of this process, it is necessary to take the elements of identity, ideology and power relations into consideration. In this study, therefore, the politics of scale is experimented for its applicability in the study of place name in Korea, which is expected to accommodate concepts of boundary, territory, territoriality and territorialization. In the end, it is suggested in this study that a series of basic and interdisciplinary studies on the cultural politics of place names in a range of area should be undertaken along with the enough theoretical knowledge of cultural politics.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.17-33
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of political image and the phenomenon of fashion politics on the style of women presidents, with focus on the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The results of the study were as follows. First, the political image of President Cristina Fernandez is identified with the second image of Eva Peron and Kirchnerismo, in terms of political issues. Second, fashion style includes the power and sexy images of glamour style that emphasizes the body line of suits and dress form. Vivid colors and black fashion reflects the Kirchner government's charisma and identity. Fernandez's iconic Rolex watches, expensive jewelry, and luxury accessories such as brooches that replicate Eva Peron's brooch were instrumental in forming a second image of Eva Peron. Third, the phenomenon of fashion politics appeared to equate the phenomenon of recreating the image of Eva Peron with displays of power and wealth for the successor to Kirchnerismo.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.88-105
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of popular culture in fashion politics phenomenon of leader. As study methods the literature study concerning fashion phenomenon and nature of popular culture were used for theoretical background and visual data from magazine, news paper, and internet were used for exploratory study. The results of this study are as follows. First, fashion politics phenomenon of leader in fashion merchandising through the marketing strategy is characterized as commercial profit. These characteristics enable the fashion industry and popular culture affect the formation to provide opportunity. Second, the fashion politics phenomenon of leader projected through mass media are the fashion icons and strong role models that are copied by consumers, conformity the popular, set a powerful fashion trend. The conformity by the mechanism of the interaction of the public will contribute to the formation of popular culture. Third, Semotics symbolism expressed in the fashion politics phenomenon of the leader, the intended message is communicated to the public by creating a positive image. Positive image of the leader of the public support and acceptance is the power to create.

• Korea and Global Affairs
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.243-270
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• 2017

The purposes of this paper are twofold: First, to discuss ways and limits of studying politics scientifically; second, to examine group theories to the study of political science. To answer the first question, I examine philosophy of science, methods of scientific research, and limits of scientific study of politics. As a subject matter itself, political science involves the study of human beings and the discovery of explanations for the political behavior that they exhibit. This discovery of regularities of behavior in politics inevitably requires that human beings act consistently or discoverable manner. I argue that the best way of studying politics as much as possible is to combine traditional and scientific approaches depending upon issues, The second section of this paper will examine one of important middle-range theory of politics; group theories (approaches). Examining this will show strength and limits of studying politics scientifically. The group approaches examine the importance of role that people hold in the political system as well as the relationship between the action of collective group and its impact on the political behavior. Overall, the group approaches tend to deal with individuals in specific societal contexts and with varying distributions of power between the actors. This group approaches are premised on the belief that political activity involves more than just one individual, political activity occurs instead through individual actors in particular settings. I argued that group theories have some explanatory power and descriptive richness, though it has limitations.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.35-58
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• 2014

This article aims to explain the 'people-image' of Bakhtin's works in the light of "Transgredience" and "Transition." According to Bakhtin, the real core of every culture is the people. But he did try to answer the question "what is the people?" I think, the secret of Bakhtinian thought is located in the people-image, because it is the one of the territories that have not been explained. For this purpose, we have to examine four images represented by Bakhtin, - rogue, clown, fool, thief. These images are the concrete and individualized images of people, who can characterize the power of transgredience and transition. They commonly act for changing ordinary borders of identities formulated with nationality, property, status, classes, sex and so forth. In this sense, Bakhtin thinks that the masks are the real nature which can show the mutational power of Being. That is the kernel of Bakhtin's people-image that makes and changes every cultural world. When we accept and practise this perspective positively, we will realize that Bakhtin's position is close to the cultural politics, because a practical power of thought cannot help but being political. That's why we have to investigate Bakhtin's people-image from a vantage point of "Transgredience" and "Transition."

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.171-199
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• 2012

Saman, a novel written by Ayu Utami, has been recognized as the symbol of the politico-social changes, which began to occur since the collapse of Suharto' New Order regime in 1998. In the novel, Ayu Utami showed the spirits of resistance against various absurd socio-political circumstances during the New Order era such as pressure on discussion, abuse of power, politics-business collusion, patriarchism, and suppression of gender. In representing those spirits, Ayu Utami used unconventional structure-making, fresh feedback and multilayered descriptions of the figures, which brought her a fame as the pioneer of the Fragrant Literature (Angkatan Wangi or chick-lit). Ayu Utami particularly criticized that, under the name of sustaining the national integrity and identity, the New Order regime enhanced patriarchal system, which consequently infringed gender equality and women's rights to self-determination. In addition, Ayu Utami argued that the abuse of power and politics-business collusion, which were prevalent during the New Order period, destroyed lives of the masses and the Indonesian society.