•The importance of Turkey’s survival as a secular and functioning democracy for the international system is evident.•This study examines how Turkey uses social media as a tool for public diplomacy ...and how it leverages its soft-power efforts.•Abolishing the boundaries between the creators and users, social media help create a new type of cult of personality in public diplomacy.•Based on an analysis of Twitter posts, the findings indicate the emergence of a “new” cult of personality in public diplomacy.•The study highlights the instrumental role of social media in changing the leader-follower relationships and points out the dark side of social media.
This study examined how Turkey uses social media as a tool for public diplomacy and how the state’s soft-power efforts have recently changed on the global stage. The researchers constructed a dataset of 2769 Twitter posts by the Turkish government’s most influential public diplomacy accounts. The analyses revealed that the focus of Turkey’s Twitter public diplomacy has become concentrated on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and is thematically focused on the political values embodied by the Turkish president. The findings suggest that public diplomacy remains to be the diplomacy of the government, not of the public, and social media is used as just another tool for propaganda, not as a means of engagement with foreign publics. Further, the findings indicate the emergence of a “new” cult of personality in public diplomacy and point out the instrumental role of social media in changing the dynamics of leader-follower relationship. The study contributes to public relations theory and practice by advancing the burgeoning public diplomacy scholarship at the intersection of social media and relational approaches.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The novelty of the study is seen in the unexplored question about Prishvin’s attitude to Stalin’s cult of personality. The evolution of the writer’s views on the role of Stalin in the establishment ...and development of the Soviet state is considered based on the material first introduced into scientific circulation, summarized from the 18-volume Pryshvin’s “Diary”, which became available to the reader only recently. The aim of the study is to show that as a man with a historiosophical mindset, Pryshvin is far from thinking that the cause of the cult of personality is solely Stalin’s fault because of his treachery and despotism. It is noted that the significance of Prishvin’s conclusions about the origins and causes of the Stalinist cult also lies in the fact that the writer’s conclusions largely anticipate the conclusions of many later researchers of the Soviet era. It has been established that Prishvin’s analysis of the objective and subjective factors of the emergence of Stalin’s personality cult shows the reader that before him is not only a talented artist of words, but also an extraordinary thinker with his own philosophical view on the most pressing ideological-political, economic and socio-cultural problems of his time.
When a Russian émigré jazz musician makes his DJ debut on the BBC's airwaves in 1977 with Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke," no one expects that he, Seva Novgorodsev, would become more popular than just a ...presenter of forbidden Western music--he would liberate the people of the USSR.
Research has shown that personality cults are a strategy to further political legitimation. They function to secure a leader’s position in the absence of democratic legitimation methods by using ...excessive flattery towards the leader. Habitual public flattery towards democratic leaders has not received scholarly attention, even though it can provide insight into the danger authoritarian discursive rituals can have on democratic processes. By applying a ritual perspective to a comparative case study analysis, this paper illustrates how political flattery is not just an instrumental means for self-promotion in the political order, but also a manipulative and antidemocratic exploitation of epideictic rhetoric. Furthermore, the implicit requirement for ritualized flattery hinders accountability and deliberative decision-making, and the process of integrating differences of opinion or interest towards a collective and impartial political practice. Leaders who surround themselves with sycophants encourage opinion- and action-conformity to whatever pleases that specific leader.
Full text
Available for:
NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The destruction of statues representing political figures carries symbolic meanings that are negotiated by the people who attack the statue and the regime that the statue represents. Across the ...Syrian territory, statues of Hafez Al-Assad symbolized the oppressive Ba'athist regime which shaped Syria's past and present for more than almost half a century. As a result, a cult of personality ensued. This paper analyses the destruction of Hafez Al-Assad statues as a case of iconoclasm, framed by how the Ba'athist regime used elements of the past to glorify the personality cult of Hafez Al-Assad (1971-2000) and later his son Bashar Al-Assad (2000-present), Syria's current president. Drawing on the work of political scientists, the paper will establish how this cult of personality operated, to understand how Syrians living under an authoritarian regime engaged with images of Hafez Al-Assad and on which terms. Furthermore, by considering the re-erection of statues representing Hafez Al-Assad the paper will also discuss unfallism to better describe the process of destruction and re-erection of statues in Syria. The underlying argument of this paper is that the destruction and re-erection of statues in Syria are acts that question the purpose of destroying a statue today, amidst the current climate of removal of statues in different parts of the world as a response to dismantling systems of oppression.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The shaping of Tito’s cult went through various phases and changed in the rhythm of dynamic social changes. The image of Tito is systematically, organized and patiently revived through the media, ...educational and scientific system, party and wider social activities. The image was a combination of a number of classic images: war hero and strategist, world leader, wise teacher, victor over the forces of evil (Hitler later Stalin) but also specific to him as a man of the people but royal manners and world importance, charmer popular among women who knows how to rule but also enjoys life, etc. Even after his death, through the slogan “And after Tito, Tito!”, his cult in society was further developed in order to maintain power. The fact that Tito enjoys great popularity in the former Yugoslav republics, even after 40 years since his death, shows how successful the shaping of the cult was and the skilfully placed images of it accepted. Especially in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, while in Serbia, according to some studies, he is popular with as many as 32% of the population.
King Zog I (1895-1961), and the communist leader Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) were without doubt the most charismatic figures of the Albanian politics in the twentieth century, whose personal rule ...dominated the country and kept it under strict control. However, the cult of personality of the two leaders had of course their own features. They derived mainly from the specific historical periods where they lived and ruled, from the political system they represented and from the very character of the personage.
Making sense of war Weiner, Amir
2001., 20120116, 2012, 2000, c2001., 2001-01-01
eBook
In Making Sense of War, Amir Weiner reconceptualizes the entire historical experience of the Soviet Union from a new perspective, that of World War II. Breaking with the conventional interpretation ...that views World War II as a post-revolutionary addendum, Weiner situates this event at the crux of the development of the Soviet--not just the Stalinist--system. Through a richly detailed look at Soviet society as a whole, and at one Ukrainian region in particular, the author shows how World War II came to define the ways in which members of the political elite as well as ordinary citizens viewed the world and acted upon their beliefs and ideologies.
Discusses how dictatorships work, looking at leaders, elites, and regime dynamics, synthesizing foundational and cutting-edge research on authoritarian politics, and integrating theory with case ...studies.
The political regime of Nicolae Ceausescu had at least three distinct stages, each of these being characterized by important developments both in the internal political life and in Romania's foreign ...relations. The purpose of this study is to deepen the Ceausescu's first period in power (1965– 1971), stage characterized, on the one hand, by a relative democratization of society and, on the other hand, the strengthening of his personal power through the assumption of important functions in the Party and State leadership along with the continuation of the political line of independence from Moscow. Thus, research is focused on works of the Ninth Congress of the Romanian Communist Party which gave "the historical start of the new times" and also is stressed the Ceausescu's public condemnation of the Warsaw Pact troops intervention in Czechoslovakia, a courageous act which gained him and our country worldwide respect. Also, it was analyzed the Constitution of Socialist Republic of Romania from 1965 (the document that formed the legal basis for the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu) and finally I focused on the end of the relative democratization period and the consolidation of Ceausescu’s personality cult.
PDF
