IntroductionOrdinarily, people believe that sport and politics are or should be disconnected. First, sport has been considered and treated as different from politics with primary focus on the health aspect of it and the joy and wellness it produces as a game (Abell et al., 2005). Second, research into politics has not often considered sport as an actual or potential vector of political development-rather; sport is perceived primarily in terms of economic and social benefits. Generally, this is can be due to the fact that the scientific legitimacy of sport in the social sciences and political science in particular is weak. Normative political theorists see dissociation between sport and politics, given that they are governed by separate structures (Cachay, 1988) and therefore perform different functions-with sport seen as regulator of the human body (Acree et al., 2006) and politics perceived as society's regulating mechanism (Easton, 1965;Skocpol, 1992) . Even if that was the case, the precarious nature of multiethnic and divided States would require something in addition to the specialised political structures to mitigate the potential of political instability and conflict. In the much still relevant Politics of the developing areas by Almond and Coleman, sport was not considered as a political vector in political systems and politics never perceived sport as all that significant in the production of political values.However, today, the political reality in multiethnic and divided societies of the developing States shows that not only there is a connection between sport and politics but the two are inseparable and this sometimes leads to the conclusion that sport in itself is politics and politics is sport. In as much as sport provides a forum for political socialization, the political uses sport as a foundation of political values such as nationalism, political development, national unity and political legitimacy. Although sport appears to be an institution on its own in State politics, the reality reflects a manifest association and connection between the two. Sport is not only a vector of human development health wise but a vector of political development through the creation of political institutions that regulate sport matters within States. Sport lays claim on the political and the political is sometimes called to regulate sport. There might be specialized structures governing the sport realm and which are not political in the real sense of the term but governmental structures have intervened to make, apply and adjudicate rules governing sport.The purpose of this paper is to provide further theoretical and empirical evidence of the nexus between sport and politics in modern States with a focus on the role of sport in political development of precarious multiethnic and divided States. We argue that political development is also an outcome of the connection between sport and politics. In addition to the health and physical benefit of sport, there is a holistic political function and political benefit of sp...
In the growing body of literature, research shows that gratitude can be recognized as a manifestation of political power that binds political actors in moral contracts. This article aims to discuss the manifestations of gratitude to governmental authorities, in Cameroon under the Biya regime through the adoption of a scientific approach. Cameroon is a plural society dominated by a strong political hierarchy where recognition of political authorities and parties are unevenly enforced and where the practice of gratitude is lacking but extremely significant when displayed.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the political function and implication of linguistic (in) equality on the potential of national unity and stability in multilingual Commonwealth States. Official multilingual States may enjoy the envious reputation of being bilingual or multilingual as the case may be, but run the risk of political instability when all the languages are not treated justly. The risk of politicizing linguistic injustice or inequality is high in multilingual societies where one language is seen to dominate others. In Cameroon, English and French are official languages with equal status. However, the weak institutionalization of linguistic equality has created complexities of inferiority and superiority among Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians, expressed in the struggle between two linguistic movements: French-only movement acting offensive nationalism and English-only movement acting defensive nationalism. Both movements which carry the germs of nationalism are in competition for survival, and in trying to do so, they reinvent political identities based on linguistic affinities. The study finds that linguistic inequality can be interpreted as a form of linguistic injustice and serve political claims that could go as far as questioning the form of the State. However, there is hope. Linguistic diversity can make sense for unity and stability when language communities perceive each other's language as complement.
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