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Political Figures (political + figure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences83%

Selected Abstracts

The Archive and the Artist: The Stefan Heym Archive Revisited

GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2000
K. E. Attar
In December 1992 Cambridge University Library acquired the Stefan Heym Archive. This is a remarkably complete collection of literary manuscripts, interviews, letters, press clippings, audio and video tapes and miscellaneous material pertaining to a major literary and political figure in East German cultural history. The current article, using insights gained from cataloguing the archive, complements previous work demonstrating how the collection reflects the life of the originator and the historical events in which he participated. The article describes the various categories of manuscripts in the archive with an emphasis on what the collection reveals about Heym's work, his approach to it, and its reception. The literary manuscripts show the genesis of particular works, the timespan over which Heym's ideas develop, the method and care in their preparation, and Heym's greater interest in the creative process than in the end-product. Similar care is evident in the text of interviews. Media coverage, paper and taped material, shows the reception of Heym's work, includes Heym's comments on his own work, and demonstrates the growth of his status over the years. The archive's cultural value should not obscure its worth in shedding light on Heym as a writer. [source]

Family Ties: The Political Genealogy of Shining Path's Comrade Norah

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010
JAYMIE PATRICIA HEILMAN
Family was central to the political life of Augusta La Torre (or Comrade Norah), the second-in-command of the Peruvian Communist Party-Shining Path (PCP-SL). La Torre was the daughter of a Communist Party militant and the granddaughter of a prominent provincial political figure. She was also the wife of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzmán. La Torre's familial history demonstrates the importance of parental and grandparental contributions to Senderistas' political formation, and suggests that parents and children were sometimes united in their support for the Shining Path. La Torre's family ties, however, have also led numerous observers to question her revolutionary credentials. [source]

Chinese bid for Unocal sparks fears of global clash over energy resources

OIL AND ENERGY TRENDS, Issue 7 2005
Article first published online: 15 JUL 200
A bid by China's state-owned offshore oil company for a privately-owned US upstream corporation has raised fears of a Chinese takeover of several other foreign companies as Peking tries to secure oil and gas reserves to fuel the country's booming economy. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has offered $19.6 bn for the California-based company, Unocal, the eighth-largest upstream company in the US in terms of reserves. The bid trumps an earlier one of $18.4 bn by US major Chevron, which had been accepted by Unocal's board and appeared to have the backing of many leading political figures in the US. [source]

Integrative Complexity of 41 U.S. Presidents

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Felix J. Thoemmes
Although U.S. presidents are one of the most studied groups of political figures and integrative complexity is one of the most widely used constructs in political psychology, no study to date has fully examined the integrative complexity of all U.S. presidents. The present study helps fill in that gap by scoring 41 U.S. presidents' first four State of the Union speeches for integrative complexity and then comparing these scores with a large range of available situational and personality variables. Results suggest a tendency for presidents' integrative complexity to be higher at the beginning of their first term and drop at the end. This pattern was pronounced for presidents who eventually won reelection to a second term and was markedly different for presidents who tried to gain reelection but lost. Additional analyses suggested that presidents' overall integrative complexity scores were in part accounted for by chronic differences between presidents' complexity levels. Further analyses revealed that this overall integrative complexity score was positively correlated to a set of interpersonal traits (friendliness, affiliation motive, extraversion, and wittiness) and negatively correlated with inflexibility. Discussion centers upon the causes and consequences of presidential complexity. [source]

Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 6.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 6 2008
December 200
Front cover caption, volume 24 issue 6 Front cover A television newscaster reports from a prayer meeting organized in support of Barack Obama on the eve of the US election in Kogelo, Western Kenya. Foreign and local journalists descended on this small village which is home to Mama Sarah, Obama's paternal step-grandmother. As this picture was taken, religious and cultural leaders, schoolchildren and local politicians were praying for the success of their ,son', although they were also careful to offer up prayers for John McCain. The newscaster stands in front of a painting by local artist Joachim Onyango Ndalo, famous for his colourful portrayals of historical events, African presidents and other world leaders. The painting shows Obama surrounded by political figures, including Colin Powell, Bill Clinton and the British queen. In January of this year Ndalo was forced to flee from his home in Western Kenya to Uganda during the violence that followed Kenya's contested elections between the Party of National Unity (PNU), led by President Kibaki, and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the opposition party led by Raila Odinga. Although pro-Odinga, the artist was branded a traitor by some members of his community for accepting a commission to paint Stanley Livondo, a Kibaki supporter and opponent of Odinga for the Langata parliamentary seat. Ndalo's workshop and paintings were destroyed. He has since returned home and plans to send his painting to America as a gift to Obama for his inauguration. Back cover caption, volume 24 issue 6 FINANCIAL CRISIS: The financial crisis unfolding since September this year has wiped out savings and threatens livelihoods across the world. Future generations will have to pay for the nationalization of gigantic debts that we never thought we had. This crisis, the worst of its kind since the Great Depression, demands an overhaul of the world's financial system. What might anthropologists contribute, beyond our insight into the world's informal economies and peasant markets? In this issue, Keith Hart and Horacio Ortiz argue that the breakdown of the economists' intellectual hegemony demands a new approach to money more sensitive to its social dimensions and to redistributive justice. A fresh reading of Mauss and Polanyi would be one good place to start. Stephen Gudeman, in his diary of witnessing the financial markets in October, argues for the relevance of anthropological concepts such as ,spheres of exchange', a realm of people, relationships and materials that cuts across market processes and lies beyond the economic vision of Wall Street and Washington, but should be represented in policy-making. Anthropologists have produced many detailed examples of how communities make use of markets within economies. Now, as the world searches for a new system of governance, is the time for anthropologists to make their voices heard. Perhaps a President's Council of Anthropological Advisors might complement the existing Council of Economic Advisors. What better time for such a proposal than the election of a new US president with roots in Hawaii, Kansas, Indonesia and Kenya, whose mother was herself an anthropologist? [source]

Trade Liberalisation and the Australian Labor Party

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 4 2002
Andrew Leigh
The three most substantial decisions to reduce Australia's trade barriers , in 1973, 1988 and 1991 , were made by Labor Governments. Labor's policy shift preceded the conversion of social democratic parties in other countries to trade liberalisation. To understand why this was so, it is necessary to consider trade policy as being shaped by more than interest groups and political institutions. Drawing on interviews with the main political figures, including Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Button, this article explores why the intellectual arguments for free trade had such a powerful impact on Labor's leadership, and how those leaders managed to implement major tariff cuts, while largely maintaining party unity. [source]