2026· South-Russian Journal of Social Sciences· Vol 27, pp. 35-48· 0 citations
Abstract
In the context of contemporary global challenges and internal transformations, the symbolic dimensions of politics are gaining increasing importance for social consolidation and the legitimation of political power. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms and actors of symbolic politics in the Republic of Azerbaijan, aimed at constructing national identity and shaping historical memory. The theoretical and methodological framework of the research is based on classical and contemporary concepts of political symbolism developed in the works of M. Edelman, A. F. Losev, Yu. M. Lotman, R. Cobb, and C. Elder, as well as scholars such as O. Yu. Malinova and A. V. Babaytsev. In this article, a political symbol is defined as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that exerts a significant influence on the emotional and value-oriented sphere and functions as a mediator between the individual and socio-political reality. The empirical basis of the study relies on a mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative research strategies. The results demonstrate a high degree of personalization within Azerbaijan’s political space. Qualitative analysis reveals the predominance of civic identity (“citizen of Azerbaijan”) over ethnic, religious, and territorial forms of identification, which indicates the effectiveness of state policy in the field of nation-building. Based on the empirical findings, the article proposes a three-level model of actors involved in symbolic politics: (1) political and intellectual elites who define the main interpretative frameworks of reality; (2) professionals in the fields of culture, media, and education who act as intermediaries and co-creators of symbols; and (3) social audiences who not only consume but actively reinterpret the proposed symbolic constructs. The study concludes that symbolic politics in Azerbaijan represents a dynamic and multifaceted process that successfully combines references to historical heritage with projections onto contemporary realities. The formation of a stable civic identity and the emphasis on the image of the people as a central symbolic element enable the country to respond effectively to the challenges of globalization, ensuring internal stability and the continuity of national development.
Pancasila is not just a symbol of the country, but a vital foundation of the nation's philosophy that maintains the integrity of national unity amid the diversity of ethnicities, religions, and cultures in Indonesia. Considering that the Pancasila ideology becomes the living spirit in the context of current values and addresses future challenges. This research aims to analyze the strategic and transformative role of the ideological values of Pancasila as a way of life; being open in addressing fundamental issues as well as contemporary challenges that threaten the unity of Indonesia, such as radicalism, political polarization, and the influence of foreign ideologies. The research method used is qualitative with a library research approach, where data is collected from scientific literature, official documents, and current social phenomena. The results of the study show that the universal values in the five principles of Pancasila serve as both a filter and a unifier capable of reducing horizontal and vertical conflicts. The actualization of Pancasila values in national life has proven to be the most effective instrument for strengthening national defense. This research concludes that strengthening ideological literacy and consistently implementing Pancasila values by the government and society is the main key to maintaining Indonesia's sovereignty in the era of globalization
H. Abdul Hakim, Abdul Sani· International Journal of Con...· 0 citations
This article offers a comparative analysis of values-oriented political projects as instruments of ideological and political influence employed by leading global powers. It shows how political discourses and discursive power shape attractive images of these centers and establish specific interpretations of concepts, language, and meanings through which actors describe social realities in domestic and international contexts. The author examines the core elements of the values-oriented political projects of the US, China, the EU, and India, identifying how these actors use discursive power to enhance their domestic and international influence. The analysis demonstrates that the values-oriented political projects advanced by the US, China, the EU, and India rest on each center’s distinct cultural and civilizational foundations. Moreover, the core components of Russia’s values-oriented political project are a response to the global challenges of the present era. These components include: (1) a polycentric, multi-civilizational world order; (2) Russia’s development as a state-civilization based on a supra-ethnic civic identity; (3) a commitment to sovereign development; and (4) complementary interaction between traditional and innovative values. The article argues that these elements of the Russian project enable substantive compatibility with those advanced by China and India within the conceptual and practical framework of civilizational integralism.
V. Pantin, M. Sigachev· Вестник Пермского университе...· 0 citations
The presented case of symbolic politics considers the confrontation between the central government and the local community in the field of memory management in post-conflict Mariupol. The starting point of the study is the establishment of control of military units loyal to Kyiv over the city. The package of memorial laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada enshrined the glorification of the OUN and UPA (recognized in the Russian Federation as extremist organizations and banned) as the main direction of state memory policy and created the legal basis for “voluntary-forced” decommunization. The research question is what methods the central government uses to impose alien ideological attitudes on local communities and what forms of resistance the latter uses under legislative pressure. The methodological basis of the work is the case stage, combined with a toolkit of symbolic policy and institutional analysis, including the study of administrative practices, grassroots initiatives and acts of sabotage. The work shows that local elites minimized nationalist propaganda in the renaming processes, which contradicted the position of the Kyiv regime, which tried to manipulate public opinion through marginal public organizations and parties. As a result of dismantling and renaming (including decisions of the city council and the head of the regional administration), a model is fixed where the central government uses legislative novels and administrative pressure, and the local community uses available forms of sabotage of this policy.
Kirill S. Panin, Alexei I. Miller· RUDN Journal of Political Sc...· 0 citations
The January 24 Decisions of 1980 and the subsequent Özal era marked a profound rupture, carrying Türkiye from an import substitution economy to an outward‐oriented, “free‐market” order. Drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of neoliberal governmentality, this study conducts a qualitative, interpretivist discourse analysis of Turgut Özal's official speeches, the period's press, party documents, and legal regulations: the new human type projected by neoliberal values and arabesk music as an index of changing taste. The central argument is that this cultural transformation was not a spontaneous market outcome but a governmental strategy constructed through the state's own steering interventions. The findings show that the governmental discourse of the period programmatically summoned an entrepreneurial subject along the axes of depoliticization, individualization, and consumption, whereas arabesk, passing through legitimation, marketization, emotional privatization, and identification, was reconstituted as a field of experience in which this subjectivity was rehearsed in everyday life. Despite the state's failure in its direct design, transformation through the market reveals a logic of “governing without governing,” turning culture into a functional apparatus for reproducing hegemony.
By the end of 20th Century a paradigm based on the assumption of discursive colonization of the Balkans, became a means for scientific understanding of reproduction of stereotypes and alteration of the Balkans in relation to Europe. Becoming a fashionable scientific tool for understanding political, economic and social crises in the Balkans, this paradigm included imagological interpretations of ethnic stereotypes, relatively complex analysis of various representations in travelogues, postcolonial critic and spatial and symbolic geographies. Drawing on some of the results of these studies and pointing out their weak points, the author states the main reasons for loss of relevance of imagological, postcolonial, geographical and other studies, that refer to the Balkans as symbolic geography, and textualy colonized part of the wold. Studies of the Balkan Otherness in Serbia and in academic circles of the Western Balkan region has come a long way from discourse analysis to displacement of criticism to geographical space. The enthusiasm that promised the concrete answers and practical solutions to the consequences of peripheral position of the Balkans, faced pessimistic image of post-transition reality. Less and less popular studies of the Balkans brought impossibility to develop and improve healthy and fertile parts of this scientific frame. In political and identity context, this ambiguity paradoxically proved the subaltern position of the region. The lack of new inspiration and and popularization of 19th century representations and Balkanist phrases led to impossibility of researchers to recognize contemporary material that undoubtedly located the Balkans in postcolonial frame.
Sanja Lazarević-Radak· Politička revija· 0 citations
Aim.
To explore the phenomenon of Russophobia as a dynamic transnational system evolving from historical stereotypes to modern digital discourse practices.
Methodology.
It is proved that modern Russophobia is not a static set of biases, but a flexible communicative construct that adapts to the current geopolitical situation through social networks and new media. The author analyses the mechanisms of forming the image of the “Russian Other” as an instrument of symbolic competition and legitimisation of political decisions.
Results.
The results of the study help to rethink Russophobia as a complex communicative and historical matrix formed at the junction of collective memory, political myths and technological capabilities of the digital age.
Research implications.
Based on an interdisciplinary approach combining history, political science and media studies, the author traces the genesis of anti-Russian sentiments from the religious and cultural alienation of the early Modern period to the ideological confrontation of the Cold War era. Attention is paid to the transformation of Russia’s image in the 21st century under the influence of digitalisation and global information wars.
R. Golubin· Russian Social and Humanitar...· 0 citations
