It is argued here that the 1648 “Peace of Westphalia,” inaugurating the “secular state,” substituted language for religion as the basis for the state’s project of affectively unifying the nation. Working to build a truly neutral state, equally available to all its citizens, involves ensuring the freedom of critical discourse to question the proto-hegemonic narrative associated with every primordial (religious or linguistic) affi liation. The Westphalian-style sanctifi cation of these affi liations becomes pathological in a society that worships purity and hierarchy. Peggy Mohan, it is argued, provides a cogent characterisation of language on the basis of which one can overcome such pathologies and work towards a chauvinism-free model of democracy.
Politics in Latin America is in a state of fl ux, caught between the right and the left. In the presidential elections in Chile, the voting of Gabriel Boric—the youngest president in the history of the Chilean Republic (36 years old)—to power marked the end of the traditional alternation of power between the centre-right and centre-left since the return to democracy in the 1990s.
Discussions on the concept of independence and liberation are essential in the democratisation of politics in Goa. The foundation of Goa’s electoral politics stems from the politics of liberation championed by the first Chief Minister of Goa, Dayanand Bandodkar. This article traces this history till the present, identifying the key phases in Goa’s politics.
The Citizens’ Commission on Elections was set up in March 2020 to critically analyse India’s electoral processes in accordance with democratic principles.
The shifting discourses on the purposes, objectives, and forms of India’s environment regulations are discussed within the broader domestic, political, and economic contexts. The environmental law reforms are being designed to legalise and protect financial investments in projects, irrespective of their environmental performance, and to monetise their impacts and damages.
