Word: militia
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...past, a nationally drafted militia kept the cantons from raising armies against each other. But it quickly became enshrined as the ultimate symbol of solidarity and subsidiarity. As Dr. Sabine Mannitz at the Peace Institute Research Frankfurt (PRIF) writes, “the Swiss concept of the citizen-soldier aims at the lowest possible degree of institutionalising military structures and at a maximum of immediate democratic control.” Compulsory militia service, the obligation to defend the polity on equal share, is the other side of the coin of semi-direct democratic participation rights. If you have equal decision...
...votes in the country's European elections with a campaign themed around the Arpad stripes, the nationalist flag that was co-opted by Hungarian fascists in the 1930s and 1940s. The party's chairman, Gabor Vona, 30, also chaired the Magyar Garda - or Hungarian Guard - a private militia that appeared at Jobbik rallies and marched through scores of Hungarian villages as part of its self-proclaimed mandate to protect "ethnic Hungarians" against the 6%-10% of the population of 10 million that are ethnically Roma, or gypsy. Vona was briefly detained by police at a July 4 rally called...
...capital's only skate park is a rare refuge for some of the country's restless and burgeoning youths, allowing them to congregate without being harassed by the feared Basij militia. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rule and particularly since the disputed June 12 election, when thousands of angry teens and 20-somethings took to the streets, the religious police have cracked down on this sort of rebellious youth culture, driving it further underground. "These artists are at the same level as those in the West, but they're working under the most incredible pressures," explains an Iranian electro-music...
...Just a few years ago, five young men in a room in Sierra Leone would have meant trouble. It was men in their teens and their 20s - but also, tragically, children even younger - who made up the Revolutionary United Front, a ragtag armed militia supported by Liberia's President Charles Taylor (now on trial for war crimes at the Hague) that devastated the country during an 11-year civil war that ended in 2002. Everywhere they went they left a calling card of chopped-off limbs, raped women and senseless bloodshed. Tens of thousands were killed and a third...
...last four years of repressive rule under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been jarring, following, as they did, eight years of social reforms under Mohammed Khatami. The Basij militia turned into the country's religious police, patrolling the streets at night to catch those returning from private house parties, where drugs, alcohol, dancing and Western music - forbidden under Islamic law - could be found. Such harassment, including jail time and hefty fines, has become a part of daily life. The Basij also stepped up enforcement of the ban against dating, the restrictions on public dress (berating women for letting their hijab reveal...