Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

Socialism is usually defined into many kinds of ideology unnecessarily by many socialist leaders themselves as well as opponent of socialism. Such has indeed confuse many socialists, potential socialists and those who are interested in deepen their understanding on socialism. Why do we need to interpret socialism into so many kinds of ideological segment, such as Leninism, Marxism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Centre-Left, Social Democrats, Socialist Democratic, First International, Third International, Fourth International or whatsoever ? Some even claim they are more socialist then others and vice-versa. Some claim to be reformed socialist and this confuse our socialist community even more. As the result of all these differences, we could see first the Socialist, Labour and Communist Parties around the world disintegrating one by one like a domino, some of these parties are even split into two or three political parties but their names still remain as socialist or communist, with only d...

Is social democracy really working well here in Malaysia? Well, it looks like the social democracy has been used of instead. Let us check out on the European analysis here. By Shayn McCallum There are a lot of good ideas being generated among social-democratic thinkers these days and, although this article is going to be critical in many respects, of the current state of social-democracy in Europe, it is absolutely worth acknowledging the excellent work being done by progressive intellectuals on constructing a new European political economy.   The task facing social-democracy (and the European project) is, it must be acknowledged,  massive and, in attempting to move forward, it must also be admitted that there is a certain exhaustion, a sense of the weight of history, that seems to have us all dragging our feet.  Fear of repeating past mistakes, or being perceived to be doing so, is of particular concern for a movement that represents one of the ...

More than 60% of Malaysian workers felt that they were not spending enough time with their families due to long working hours, a survey by online recruitment firm Jobstreet.com revealed. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said that they worked extra hours daily – two to five hours beyond their scheduled time to leave the office. Overtime was inevitable, due to unreasonable deadlines and work overload, resulting in nearly 75% choosing to stay late at the office. Most of the respondents, however, complained that they were not paid for the extra hours. More than 60% felt that their employers were not interested in ensuring a work-life balance. One respondent said, "Even if my company has work-life balance initiatives such as a gym, a chill-out area and other organised social activities, it's there in place just for show. "We don’t have sufficient manpower to sustain the workload.” And bosses, apparently, do not leave their employees alone when they are...

By Tatiana Gabroussenko " ... Young guerrilla girl Kumsuni delivers letters to comrades, and one day is caught by the police. When the policemen demand the girl disclose information about the guerillas, she spits into the faces of her interrogators. As the policemen drag Kumsuni to her execution, the heroic girl cries out 'Long Live General Kim Il Sung!'" ...Pre-teen boy Ri Kwang-ch'un is a member of a secret anti-Japanese children's organization. Along with others, he helps the "Red Guard uncles". However, one day policemen apprehend the boy. When the "bastards" torture the young patriot, Ri cuts off his own tongue in defiance. His last words are "Long Live the Korean Revolution!" Even if one supports patriotic education of the younger generation, one is still likely to find such notions of slicing off one's own tongue, torture or execution to be much too disturbing and complicated to present to children. Yet the plots ci...

We all know that the state consist of formal bodies and institutions designed to service human needs as they have developed over the incredibly long history, where most of it unwritten, of the social evolution. The state is in many respects an extension of the family - the family and also the clan and the tribe, were all designed to ensure minimum of security and well-being for their members and so is the state. The greater impersonality of the state reflects the bureaucracy that comes inevitably with routine, specialization of task, the distribution of benefits in terms of more of merits than personal acquaintance and not least, large number of people living in an extended geographic location. We also know that the emergence of the state is signaled in part of a self-conscious effort to explain its origins and to lend legitimacy of its institutions, bodies, personnel and policies. States also may differ markedly from one another in many ways, but they all have in common the primary ch...

Any or all the said sub-disciplines may be integrated into a comparative framework. When political analyst look at the political parties or socialization processes of two or more societies, they are able to clarify their generalizations about a particular political system because its characteristics are highlighted by comparison with those of other political systems. Comparative political analysis is also help to us in understanding and also identifying those characteristics which may be universal to the political process, regardless of time or place. In fact, it may be argued that no hypothesis or theory of politics deserves credibility unless it has been tested in several different societies - cross culturally. And while the traditional approach to comparative politics tended to describe only the institutional details of several foreign states, more recent trends have been in terms of specific system characteristics compared cross culturally. It is possible to learn more about execut...

Research has also been indispensable in attempts to learn how citizens do acquire the opinions , attitudes and basic beliefs that would determine their political behavior. Just for example, if our parents are loyal Barisan supporters and if they consider labour unions an unfortunate blight on the economic landscape, what are the chances that I will vote Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) or Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and regard businessmen as self-serving profiteers who compromise the public interest? To what extent do people acquire their political opinions from their family, school, associations, close acquaintances and professional colleagues and how do these patterns of socialization vary from one individual to another according to age, education, income, career and many other aspects? The characteristics of political socialization and clusters of opinions, attitudes and beliefs that make up the society are in turn a part of the society's political culture. And the characteristics ...