Abstract
62.8255 ABBOUD, Samer Nassif —
The peaceful protests that erupted in Syria in March 2011 sparked a protracted protest movement now in its second year. These uprisings were met with fierce repression by the regime, which has until recently rejected all regional and national demands for a halt to the violence. Thus far, the regime has been able to shield itself from a more substantive political transition process in large part because of the absence of a unified Syrian opposition. Although the Syrian uprising has created the political opportunity for the formation of multiple Syrian opposition groups, as the uprising continues, more and more groups claiming to represent the opposition have emerged, creating disunity, conflict, and mistrust between the different opposition groups. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8401]
62.8256 AMABLE, Bruno; GUILLAUD, Elvire; PALOMBARINI, Stefano —
France's model of capitalism experiences a crisis with multiple aspects. First, the French model of capitalism has undergone deep reforms since the 1980s. Second, the French political life is characterized by a political crisis: the vanishing of the space for mediation between the divergent expectations of the social groups composing the dominant social bloc. These crises are linked. First, because the institutional reforms undertaken since the 1980s have changed French capitalism, its institutional complementarities, the profile of socio-political groups, and have contributed to destabilizing social alliances. Second, because the political crisis has pushed policy-makers to turn to institutional change as a necessary condition for opening up new spaces of mediation. This contribution surveys the main changes experienced by the French model over the past 30 years, analyses the break-up of the traditional social alliances and presents the elements of the political crisis in relation to neoliberal structural reforms. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8314]
62.8257 APFEL, Steve —
[Of] the several paradoxes in the propaganda war against Israel, the most puzzling perhaps would be the way many Christian groups and churches side with the Palestinians. On the evidence one would expect the opposite. Believing Christians have every logical reason to be pro-Israel, where alone in the Middle East Christendom's holy sites are protected; where Christians may pray openly; and where Christian followers face no pressures to convert. On the Palestinian side, none of those freedoms exist. How in that case can one explain groups like the Presbyterians, the World Council of Churches, Christian Aid and so forth aiming their missiles at the Jewish state? Bringing together religious doctrine, life-preserving motives and naked bias, this article seeks to provide answers to the paradox of Christianity against Christian-friendly Israel. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8258 BACON, Edwin —
The development of prediction and forecasting in the social sciences over the past century and more is closely linked with developments in Russia. The Soviet collapse undermined confidence in predictive capabilities, and scenario planning emerged as the dominant future-oriented methodology in area studies, including the study of Russia. Scenarists anticipate multiple futures rather than predicting one. The approach is too rarely critiqued. Building on an account of Russia-related forecasting in the 20th c., analysis of two decades of scenarios reveals uniform accounts which downplay the insights of experts and of social science theory alike. [R]
62.8259 BARAK, Oren —
The two decades since the end of the civil war in Lebanon (1975–1990) were not always stable but did not witness a return to conflict. This article suggests that a significant factor that can help account for this outcome is the reforms introduced in Lebanon's security sector, and especially in the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which made the LAF more representative and hence more legitimate in the eyes of members of Lebanon's various societal sectors. This case suggest that in divided societies in the aftermath of conflict, stability can be attained by enhancing the representativeness of the security sector, in addition to similar reforms in the political system. [R] [See Abstr. 62.7312]
62.8260 BARSALOU, Judy —
How have protagonists in Egypt's transition used historical narratives and memorialization to promote their diverse agendas since the fall of H. Mubarak? This article argues that evidence of the unfinished nature of Egypt's transition is found in state efforts to control access to historical materials and in controversies about interpreting Egypt's contemporary history. It also provides examples of four different processes through which memory is created, manipulated and conveyed by ordinary people: the collection and storage of materials using digital technologies; demonstrations, marches and memorial services; the renaming of civic spaces; and artistic activism. [R]
62.8261 BEN-MEIR, Alon —
This essay's first two sections analyze the Arab uprising as an integral part of global transformation, ushering in a new era in which no ruler can deprive his citizens of their basic rights. The next three sections explain how common denominators and unique characteristics of each country, as well as determinants of Western intervention, will shape the development of each nation's respective uprising and future. This part demonstrates why the Arab “Spring” could turn into a cruel “winter” of new challenges and political uncertainty. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8196]
62.8262 BENRAAD, Myriam —
Even though a certain number of US civilian employees are still in Iraq, American troops withdrew from the country on 18 December 2011, nearly nine years after first arriving in March 2003. Of course, Saddam Hussein's bloody regime has been eliminated. But the country still is not out of the woods. The US has in fact committed several errors in this adventure, starting with the establishment of a new political order in the summer of 2003, based on the ethnic-religious sharing of power between Arabs, Kurds, Shi'ites, Sunnis and Christians. Because this power-sharing arrangement did not reflect social realities in the country, it immediately fed tensions and blocked political progress. [R, abr.]
62.8263 BERG, Eiki —
This article questions whether a relatively strong conviction that legitimacy conveys nothing more than acceptance derived from legal recognition. Therefore several indices are constructed which are applicable to comparing and contrasting four major dimensions of political legitimacy both in parent states and in secessionist entities. In measuring political legitimacy in Cyprus, Moldova and Bosnia & Herzegovina in terms of identity and security on the one hand, and democracy and performance on the other, we may be able to observe cases where internal legitimacy has been neglected by the international community. This article concludes that legitimacy is a variable continuously used in the support and rejection of secessionist bids and integrationist endeavors. [R]
62.8264 BERG, Eiki; MÖLDER, Martin —
Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh are internationally unrecognized political entities, or so-called de facto states, that have emerged as a result of the incomplete and contested state-formation of their parent states and of the secessionist movements that emerged in the power vacuum of the post-Soviet space. In addition to examining the conventional reliance on the self-determination principle, usually followed by a call for international recognition, this article surveys whether these political entities have proved that they embody “rightful authority” as such and whether they “have earned their sovereignty”. In other words, it examines the self-determination claims in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh based on legitimacy criteria that are widely accepted for liberal democratic societies using an analysis of the respective issues as they were represented in focus-group discussions in these two regions. [R]
62.8265 BERGMANN, Michael; KONZELMANN, Laura; RATTINGER, Hans —
Demographic change is one of the biggest challenges with regard to social and economic developments in Germany. The public debate mainly focuses on negative effects for social security systems. However, analyzing potential results of an ageing population for political attitudes and political behavior of the citizenry does not play a major role in scientific research so far. This article first examines age-specific differences in individual political attitudes. Second, we analyze possible determinants of age-specific party vote-choice. We find age-specific attitudes, which — at least in part — do have an impact on party choice. [R]
62.8266 BOOTH, David; GOLOOBA-MUTEBI, Frederick —
Academic debate on Rwanda does not usually make use of a theoretically informed comparative framework. This article addresses the distinctive approach of the RPF-led regime to political involvement in the private sector of the economy. It uses the framework of a cross-national study which distinguishes between more and less developmental forms of neo-patrimonial politics. The article analyzes the RPF's private business operations centered on the holding company known successively as Tri-Star Investments and Crystal Ventures Ltd. These operations involve the kind of centralized generation and management of economic rents that has distinguished the more developmental regimes of Asia and Africa. With some qualifications, we conclude that Rwanda should be seen as a developmental patrimonial state. [R, abr.]
62.8267 BRAGINSKAIA, Ekaterina — “
The essay discusses Russia's historic engagement with Islam and suggests that some of its contemporary developments should be examined through a comparison of similar and different attempts to institutionalize Islam in Britain and France. The value of such a comparison lies in better understanding similar challenges to promoting moderate forms of Islam and engaging with Muslim representative institutions within different national contexts. Although the three countries developed different policies for integrating Muslim citizens, there is a degree of convergence in state determination to impose tighter security measures while using more integrationist rhetoric. Russia's engagement with Muslim communities provides an interesting hybrid which is partly reminiscent of Britain's multicultural aspirations and partly of France's drive for regulatory efficiency. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8176]
62.8268 BROX, Trine —
This article explores how displaced Tibetans demarcate and characterize the Tibetan demos in the process of building a democratic community and a government-in-exile. In this democracy-in-exile, defining the demos is not only a means of representing a people, but also a means of regaining a lost homeland. Two specific instances of the construction of a transnational exile demos are investigated: citizenship and political representation. The Tibetan Government-in-Exile's formalized idea of citizenship builds upon ideals of equal and loyal members who form a single unit bounded by a common cause. This also constitutes the foundation for Tibetan citizens' political representation in the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The parliament's definition of the demos enhances regional and religious adherence as essentials for determining who the Tibetan people are. [R, abr.]
62.8269 BYMAN, Daniel; GOLD, Zack —
In the wake of Egypt's revolution and subsequent elections, Westerners have focused on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as a political force to be reckoned with. But the Egyptian Salafis, more fundamentalist than the Brotherhood, garnered nearly a quarter of the seats in the new People's Assembly, and they bear watching as well. [R]
62.8270 CALLAHAN, William A. —
This article argues that Chinese futures studies exhibit two general trends: (1) a shift from locating the future outside China to see China itself as the future, and (2) a shift from officials centrally planning the future to many different people dreaming about many different futures. The battle for the future thus is not necessarily between China and the West, but also takes place within China amongst different groups of Chinese intellectuals. This Introduction examines themes that unite the special issue's diverse articles, especially the interplay between technical and cultural innovation. Chinese discussions of the future can tell us about how people in the PRC interact with their own past-present-future, and how they interact with people in other countries in the present. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “China's future”, edited by the author. See also Abstr. 62.6913, 7290, 7795, 8139, 8271, 8276]
62.8271 CALLAHAN, William A. —
Civil society seems to be a dead issue in China because its formal aspects of mobilization and institutionalization are so tightly regulated by the party-state. This article looks to activities in and around the Shanghai World Expo (2010) to rethink the meaning of civil society and political action in China. Through an analysis of the Expo's national, theme, and corporate pavilions, it shows how Beijing is planning a harmonious future for China and the world. Yet alongside this unified future, it examines how Shanghai's citizen intellectuals — filmmaker Jia Zhangke, artist Cai Guoqiang, and blogger Han Han — are creating alternative futures. This multiple decentralized view of the future is an integral part of building alternative notions of civil society in China. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8270]
62.8272 CARMO, Corival —
The objective of this article is to portray the political and economic transformations in Venezuela, evidencing that, in despite of an absence of a predefined project, the possibilities of the current transformations were already put in the 1999 Constitution. In this sense, the Constitution keeps being taken in different ways from the social demands and the political struggles. The legal mark created by the 1999 Constitution gives distance not only for society and State democratization, but also to the creation process of a new development model. It also points that build as answers to the political struggles and to the social conflicts, the institutions and the development model aren't defined, they change according to the dynamics of those political and social conflicts and, therefore, it isn't viable make a final balance of Chavez government. This undefined situation produces consequences upon the own State capacity of attend and act within social demands. [R]
62.8273 CAVATORTA, Francesco; HAUGBØLLE, Rikke Hostrup —
Rather than concentrating on potential explanations for the Tunisian uprising or focusing on the future challenges the country has, this article looks back at the time of Ben Ali and the mythology that the regime created around political, economic and social development in Tunisia. The article argues that the authoritarian resilience paradigm and the democratization one tended to obscure the complexity of Tunisian society and how it reacted and adapted to the policies the regime implemented over the course of more than two decades. Thus, the article problematizes the rigidity of paradigms and contends that a more nuanced and holistic approach is necessary to understand both Tunisian politics and Arab politics more generally. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8357]
62.8274 CHALMERS, Malcolm —
Should the Scots vote “Yes” in the announced referendum on independence, what would the consequences be for the two successor states? The author explores the potential implications of an independent Scotland for the security and defense of the British Isles. [R]
62.8275 CHANIS, Jonathan —
Some analysts tend to overestimate the role of markets in promoting US energy security, assuming that crude oil moves internationally as if it were traded in a “free market”. But global petroleum are severely constrained by many factors, including logistical limitations, increasingly non-interchangeable types of crude oil, and limitations on where companies can produce oil and to whom they can sell it. Most important, the markets for petroleum are distorted by the practices of Saudi Arabia and OPEC. A misunderstanding of the above factors can lead to an exaggeration of the ability of markets to protect consumer or US national interests. A more realistic understanding would recognize the imperfect hold markets have on global crude oil allocation and would stop confusing the theory of “free markets” with the reality of international politics and oligopoly. [R, abr.]
62.8276 CHEUNG, Kelvin Chi-Kin —
Following the success of China's economic reform, Chinese nationalism has entered a new stage. The sentiment born of “the century of national humiliation” is insufficient to explain the phenomenon of Chinese new nationalism. China no longer regards the West as the benchmark against which it defines its success, but is becoming more assertive about its own values and perspectives. This emphasis on a Chinese perspective is related to the cultural shift in China's post-socialist transition, where the source of legitimacy in China's development has moved from an ideological dimension of socialism to a cultural dimension of “Chinese characteristics”. Following this transition, growing importance is being placed on an indigenous voice in many aspects of China's development, including the recent efforts to reinvent traditional Chinese culture as a source of China's soft power. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8270]
62.8277 CLIFF, Thomas —
Most analyses of central government policy in Xinjiang focus on the “Uyghur problem”. This article demonstrates the coexistence of a significant “Han problem” in Xinjiang, and thereby throws a different light on relations between center and periphery in China. Central government reactions to the Ürümqi riots in July 2009 suggest that stability among the Han population of Xinjiang is the center's primary objective, and that this stability is seen to be facilitated by a particular style of development. Furthermore, state-society interactions in the immediate aftermath of the 2009 riots show that Han in Xinjiang perceive themselves to possess collective — if limited and contingent — influence. This perception is the product of the mass frame through which the Han mainstream view their relationship with the central government. I call this mass frame “the partnership of stability”. [R]
62.8278 CONSIDÈRE-CHARON, Marie-Claire —
The Good Friday Agreement (1998) and the St. Andrew Agreement (2006) have paved the way for conflict resolution in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, the functioning of the new institutions set up by these agreements is far from perfecto The most radical parties were elected to the Stormont Assembly and tensions between Unionists and Republicans remain palpable. The threat of violent groups continues to hover over the peace process. [R]
62.8279 COSTA, Elisabetta —
I present a case study concerning NowLebanon.com , one of the most read Lebanese journalistic websites in English whose popularity goes beyond Lebanon's border. I first investigate online news aimed at foreigner readers. In particular, I analyze news texts, seen as symbolic sites of political struggle, and produced during the pre- and post-election period in the spring and summer of 2009. I explore how themes and stories in circulation are used by Lebanese journalists in order to discredit their political rivals within a global digital environment. The second goal is to explore extra-textual aspects of online news meaning. [R]
62.8280 COULAND, Jacques —
In opposition of a prevailing pessimism on the future of the Arab world, this paper intends to propose some elements of reflection to accompany the current movement. A reminder of the chains which, from the Tunisian and Egyptian cases, led to the wide regional expansion of the uprisings, leads to inquire the most lasting cases, Yemen and Syria. The place taken by Islamic currents is a true challenge. But also the dispersal of secular and modernist forces, although efforts gathering are taking place. [R]
62.8281 CURRY, Jane L.; GÖEDL, Doris —
The Serbian Revolution of 2000, Georgian Rose Revolution of 2003, and Ukrainian Orange Revolution of 2004 are examined from the perspective of both the causes of popular engagement and the elite interaction. The authors argue that the model of Electoral Revolutions based on democracy-promotion from outside and election fraud as a trigger for action does not fully explain either what brought people to the streets or why there was not a clear move to democratization in these cases. Instead, they show that corruption, failed administration, and state weakness were the triggers, that the opposition politicians were from the old administration, that people were repeating what they had done before in demonstrating, and that the mass movements did not result in the growth of civil society, increased popular engagement, or (on their own) significant democratization. [R]
62.8282 CURTIS, Michael —
This article deals with the insidious propaganda campaign against the state of Israel by official and unofficial international organizations, human rights groups, the media and academic institutions, in addition to Palestinian and Arab spokespersons, to challenge the legitimacy of the Jewish state and to demonize it. The campaign is to some extent code for thinly veiled anti-Semitism, but it also results from a number of factors: admiration of third-worldism and disapproval of democratic systems and values, and adopting as meaningful and relevant to criticism of Israel modern post-modernist thought, cultural relativism and multiculturalism. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8283 DALMASSO, Emanuela —
Despite large protests beginning in February 2011, Morocco seems not to have experienced significant democratic change. This article questions the degree to which Morocco is indeed an exception. Building on an analysis of the political context prior to the protests, it explores the political adjustments that the Moroccan regime has been forced to undertake following the demonstrations inspired by the Arab Spring. Largely unnoticed by international observers, Morocco has also undergone what may well be a watershed moment in its history. Changes to the political system as a result of the Arab uprisings may have far greater long-term significance than it appears at first glance. The case of Morocco exemplifies the paradox of analyzing Arab politics as if the paradigms of democratization and of authoritarian resilience are in opposition to each other. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8357]
62.8284 DEDE, Alper Y. —
This article examines the dynamics that led to the Egyptian Spring and prospective challenges in Egypt's democratic transition. Studying the Egyptian Spring would allow us to understand what the nascent political and social changes suggest for Egypt's future as well as giving us useful clues as to what specific areas Egyptian governments of the future need to improve. Lack of democracy, economic stagnation, and mass discontent with Egypt's pro-American foreign policy position are the three main causes of the Egyptian Spring. The ousting of the Mubarak regime through mass uprisings has opened the way for democratization. However, this does not necessarily guarantee a smooth transition to a fully functioning democratic system. [R, abr.]
62.8285 DEEG, Richard —
1249–1268 From the 1930s to 1970s the United States (US) model of capitalism was based on a Keynesian growth model. Collective bargaining and pro-labour policies were widely accepted. Product market regulation was fairly extensive. Industrial policy in the US was less overt than in other advanced economies, but quite extensive in certain sectors. By the late 1990s the US model had clearly coalesced around a new set of institutions based on a different set of complementarities: deregulated labour markets combined with shareholder-oriented finance and corporate governance to produce a system with highly flexible allocation of productive resources marked by high levels of financialization. This contribution explains this transformation as a combination of three variables: structural features of the US economy; the fragmented institutional character of US policy-making and regulation; and policy convergence between left and right. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8314]
62.8286 DELLO BUONO, R. A. —
Capitalist globalization has accelerated technological development but the result has been to intensify global inequalities and reproduce the structures of underdevelopment in entire world regions. In Latin America, the era of Keynesian developmentalism sought to overcome foreign domination that prevailed in modernization-style development regimes. Advances made in that era were halted and later reversed through the imposition of neoliberalism throughout the region. Neoliberal development increased developing country dependency upon foreign technologies and reproduces the structures of underdevelopment. Anti-neoliberal alternatives are possible even under conditions of severe economic crisis as illustrated by the Cuban socialist model. Other countries will likewise need to pursue more endogenously oriented technology policies if they are to overcome the crippling impact of the neoliberal period. [R]
62.8287 DEMBINSKA, Magdalena —
How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, Silesians and Kashubs in Poland. In order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings to which groups adjust by reframing identity claims. In doing so, they re-imagine and reinforce their communities. Following R. Brubaker, group-making is presented as an eventful process where ethnic elites invest identity categories with groupness by taking advantage of opportunity windows at hand. Further, tracing changing political opportunities, strategic adjustments and groups' boomerang effect bid, the paper embeds identity groups within the social movement literature. [R]
62.8288 DEMIRTEPE, M. Turgut; BOZBEY, Izzet Ahmet —
The relationship between minority and majority groups in various contexts has the potential to lead to ethnic friction. Some states make use of accommodational policies to overcome this dichotomy, whereas others resort to assimilatory policies to eliminate inter-group differences. The Uyghur case typifies the situation where a nation-state assumes assimilatory policies rather than accommodational ones. Against this backdrop, while China claims to have granted autonomy to the Uyghurs, their autonomy comes with serious restrictions which reduce the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to a province under Beijing's direct rule. In addition, the Chinese government has, to large extent, adopted an assimilatory approach in the form of linguistic, religious, economic, and political policies, since Beijing perceives the Uyghur identity as an existential threat to social and political order in China. [R, abr.]
62.8289 DÉNES, Iván Zoltán —
Analyzing the images of the self and the enemy of the two main kinds of political language in the post-communist countries of East Central European, this Hungarian case study shows the shift from personal liberty to social protection, from liberal democracy to a mixture of oligarchic and ochlocratic phenomena, from constitutional revolution to a search for forging collective identity, from individual universal human-rights discourse to collectivist, including ethnicist, public speech, and from establishing the constitutional bases of the new democratic political system to different political hysterias. Its ultimate question is how to surpass political hysteria through research into the ways and means of processing collective traumas. [R]
62.8290 DURAC, Vincent —
Yemen's revolt of 2011 raises many questions about recent analysis of authoritarianism in the Arab world. The long-standing regime of Ali Abdullah al-Saleh and his General People's Congress (GPC) party seemed to represent a classic case of authoritarian upgrading. The surprisingly open political system in Yemen masked the extent to which the president exerted control through a network of informal alliances and external support and patronage. The protests against the regime which led ultimately to a handover of power to Saleh's vice-president and the formation of a government of national unity between the GPC and the opposition, seem to constitute yet another set of challenges to the theses of authoritarian upgrading and Arab hostility to democracy. However, the protest movement was quickly overtaken and marginalized both by the established parties of opposition and by tribal actors. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8357]
62.8291 DZENOVSKA, Dace; ARENAS, Iván —
In 1991, barricades in the streets of Riga, Latvia, shielded important landmarks from Soviet military units looking to prevent the dissolution of the USSR; in 2006, barricades in the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico, defended members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca from paramilitary incursions. We employ these two cases to compare the historically specific public socialities and politics formed through spatial and material practices in moments of crisis and in their aftermath. We show how the barricades continue to animate social and political formations and imaginaries, providing a sense of both past solidarity and future possibilities. We consider how our case studies might inform broader questions about social collectives like the nation and publics. The barricades provide an enabling position from which to imagine and organize collective life otherwise. [R, abr.]
62.8292 ÉTIENNE, Gilbert —
The “green revolution”, launched in the 1960s after the first measures of the postwar period, has solved much of the food problem in Southern Asia. But Sub-Saharan Africa remains burdened with serious hardships and, even in Asia, the efforts that led to success yesterday seem less effective today. It is now necessary to turn back to the original “green revolution” model, both its domestic political dimensions and its requirements in terms of international cooperation. [R]
62.8293 FARRINGTON, Conor —
Widely adopted decentralization policies have increased the significance of local citizen participation in Latin America, especially with regard to “new political spaces”, or spaces for citizen-government engagement distinct from both electoral democracy and non-electoral political activism. Since new political spaces tend to employ “deliberative democratic” methods of decision-making, their prospects depend to a considerable extent on the extent to which surrounding “public spheres” enable or constrain deliberation. This paper focuses on the specific case of Ecuador, drawing upon theories of deliberative democracy and the public sphere to assess the likely prospects for new political spaces in Ecuador through an examination of the key aspects of Ecuadorian politics and society since independence from Spain in 1822. [R]
62.8294 FÉLIZ, Nariano —
Argentina's recent trajectory has provoked several discussions in the last few years. Most of them have centered on the character of the new mode of development presumed to have appeared in the wake of the crisis of neoliberal rule. This article analyzes the changes and continuities in capitalist development in Argentina after the crisis of 2001. We provide extensive evidence regarding changes in the mode of development which has shifted towards a neo-developmentalist alternative. While we argue that this strategy perpetuates capitalist domination, more importantly we stress that it also implies significant changes from the previous pattern of development. Particularly, the new mode of capitalist development creates a new set of public policies that mediate class-conflict in renewed ways. [R]
62.8295 FEUERSTOSS, Isabelle —
The Syrian uprising has evolved into a civil war. The lines between the various communities making up the Syrian mosaic have become more evident. Intercommunal resentments that have been repressed for decades have begun to resurface. The regime, which has long exploited the different communities, is unable to control the “sectarian” movement of the conflict. Whatever the outcome of current events, the hatreds that fuel the civil war will continue to weigh on the country's future. [R]
62.8296 FIERMAN, William —
Since the collapse of the USSR, Russian-language skills have declined significantly throughout Central Asia among the titular and other local ethnic groups. Nevertheless, even in countries with minute Slavic minorities, Russian continues to be used for many different types of communication, and enjoys a high level of prestige, including in higher education and in top levels of professional, economic and political spheres. The use of Russian in elite domains and its association with high quality in Central Asia stands in contrast to the situation in the former Soviet republics of the Baltic and South Caucasus. [R]
62.8297 FISHMAN, Joel S. —
The language may be deceptively conciliatory but the meaning of the BDS message is of intransigence. The rhetoric of this movement conceals a program of “resistance”, a call to destabilize the status quo through unremitting public agitation over a long period. It rejects the premises of the Oslo agreements including the possibility of a negotiated peace with Israel or any form of reconciliation, and its message combines anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism. The movement is all the more dangerous because under the guise of a quest for justice its advocates skillfully conceal the strategic objective of isolating and destroying the Jewish state and perhaps also Jews who individually and collectively identify with the State of Israel. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8298 FREIE, John F. —
Since the 1980s, American national politics has experienced a shift — from the paradigm of modern politics to the paradigm of postmodern politics. Postmodern politics involves the use of images to connect emotionally with citizens and the staging of pseudo-events and hyperreal spectacles. With the growth of niche identity groups and the increasing intensity of partisanship politics has become fragmented and bipartisanship and consensus-building has become difficult. These patterns seem incompatible with democracy. While postmodern politics offers hope that citizens might become involved in politics through the use of digital technologies, to date this has not occurred. The disturbing trend of postmodern politics is to make decision-making less transparent and less accountable and reduce the role of citizen to passive audience member. [R]
62.8299 FRENETT, Ross; SMITH, M. L. R. —
Despite an increasing number of attacks by violent anti-Good Friday Agreement (GFA) Republicans from 2009, there is still relatively little understanding of the nature of these organizations or the likely longevity of their campaign(s). This analysis argues that the current upsurge of violence is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, due to a combination of factors that entrench republican ideology. The fractured nature of anti-GFA groups and the declining stature of the Provisional movement are key factors that energize anti-agreement sentiment. In particular, this study identifies the internet as one of the most significant emerging drivers in that it has the potential to sustain social networks that create and reinforce a traditional minded Irish Republican constituency implacably committed to using violence in pursuit of its goals. [R]
62.8300 FRIIS, Karsten —
Ten years of international intervention in Afghanistan: why has so little been achieved? This fundamental question requires a holistic analysis that covers several sets of actors and various sectors of the intervention. The analysis must also go beyond the day-to-day issues of coordination and resource-allocation, and look into the basic questions of how the different sets of actors ascribe meaning to Afghanistan and themselves: their identities. What is the purpose of their being (there)? This article applies discourse-analysis, not taking identities and meanings as a given, but focusing instead on the constitution of identities. By analyzing the military, humanitarian, and state-building identities in Afghanistan through their spatial, temporal, and ethical dimensions, the article demonstrates the utility of this approach for studying interventions, and to provide preliminary answers to why the results in Afghanistan have been so meager. [R, abr.]
62.8301 GAUB, Florence —
Libya can manage a relatively peaceful and effective transition because part of the logic and institutions of the Libyan Jamahiriya paradoxically survived the 2011 revolution. The country must nevertheless decide on major reforms, settle the unitary state/federal state debate, profoundly reshape its political institutions, and create a new relationship of trust with its security forces. Only the latter could lead to the disarmament of militias. [R]
62.8302 GERSTENFELD, Manfred —
Substantial parts of the European mainstream perceive Israel as a Nazi state due to the extreme way it has been de-legitimized. This is part of much larger and deeper pockets of fragmented and new criminal European ideologies. These attitudes toward Israel and Jews have become an indicator of the continent's moral decadence. If the far-from-hypothetical scenario of a genocidal nuclear attack on Israel comes true, the actual murderers will most probably be Muslims. Yet many influential Europeans will be collaborators and accomplices in nurturing such a scenario through their actions and omissions. Against this backdrop, it is important to realize that it is still possible to fight de-legitimization in an organized and effective way. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8303 GODEMENT, François —
The term “peaceful development” has created ambiguity. It fails to capture the extent to which China has become a global influence whose economic policy decisions are essential to the world multilateral system. China's international strategy can no longer be guided only by the quest for “stability” and by the principle of non-interference, because change and interdependence are a hallmark of this century. Neither can a relation with the US alone define China's international strategy. Hopefully, China will understand the usefulness for rising powers to make long-lasting compromises, and it will strengthen instead of weaken a set of international institutions that have allowed for the most prosperous and peaceful era in human history. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8340]
62.8304 GROISS, Arnon —
De-legitimization of Israel as a sovereign state and denial of the Jews' rights, indeed of their legitimate presence in Palestine in both antiquity and today, have been the cornerstone of the Arab position since the onset of the Middle East conflict. Even the peace agreements between Israel and some of its neighbors — Egypt (1979), the PLO (1993), Jordan (1994) — have not changed this attitude, as starkly illustrated by schoolbooks of the nations concerned. This essay describes the depiction of the Jewish state in Palestinian Authority (PA) schoolbooks in comparison to Arab, Iranian, and Israeli textbooks. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8305 GUIOT, François-Vivien —
The conditions required to establish the European identity hypothesis have not been sufficiently explored. This shortcoming corrupts the identity notion, and reduces its sense to a scientifically low idea of “common properties”. Consequently, current studies do not [explain] the European identity concept, as they preconceive the subject. Regarding these insufficiencies, the article analyzes the heuristic conditions of validity of the identity notion, by taking into account philosophical and epistemological knowledge. It seems to be the only scientific way to understand what “European identity” means in the legal field. Considering the observable phenomena, this study identifies an autonomous concept of European identity, first by distinguishing between the national identities and the European one, and second by establishing a useful typology of its properties. [R, abr.]
62.8306 HAQUE, Shahabul; ALAM, Bayezid —
It is important that a society can change its political organization either to greater, or lesser, forms of complexity. The Laleng, an indigenous community living in Sylhet region in Bangladesh, have their own language, traditions and customs. Political organization is one of the most important cultural elements of Laleng community. Unfortunately, this element has been changed due to several causes. The study explores the changing pattern of Lalengs. [R, abr.]
62.8307 HARRIS, Erika —
Focusing on the character of post-communist extreme nationalist parties, the meaning of “the nation” and the role of historical memory in Central and Eastern Europe, the article defends the notion of “Eastern” nationalism with an aim to suggest a more fruitful research into ethnic politics in the region. It argues that contemporary “Eastern” nationalism has its own dynamic; it encompasses a number of themes and developments some of which confirm that the eastern part of the continent is more ethnic, but yet others that negate it and are perhaps showing a way forward in the Europe of the future. [R]
62.8308 HARSCH, Ernest —
Popular contestation has established itself as a regular feature of African political life. Mass demonstrations, boisterous marches, and tenacious strikes are not as rare or sporadic as they once were. The continent's power-holders can no longer be assured of a passive citizenry. Whether tentatively or with great force, Africans are finding ways to make their demands known, be it through the ballot box, on the internet, or in the streets. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8196]
62.8309 HIRSCHKIND, Charles —
While the uprising in Egypt caught most observers of the Middle East off guard, it did not come out of the blue. The seeds of this spectacular mobilization had been sown as far back as the early 2000s and had been carefully cultivated by activists from across the political spectrum, many of these working online via Facebook, Twitter, and within the Egyptian blogosphere. This article addresses some of the ways the practice of blogging changed the conditions of political discourse and action within Egypt over recent years, and set the stage for the recent overthrow of the H. Mubarak regime. [R]
62.8310 HLAING, Kyaw Yin —
Since the new government took power in 2011, the citizens of Myanmar have enjoyed a greater degree of freedom than at any time since the military seized power in 1962. This article explains how the recent political changes in Myanmar have come about. It argues that the absence of a rigid paramount leader who opposes reconciliation with the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the challenges posed by serious economic problems and positive responses from Western countries and pro-democracy leaders in Myanmar have allowed liberals in the government to work together for the further liberalization of the country's political system. However, Myanmar still has a long way to go before it can become a full-fledged democracy. [R, abr.]
62.8311 HOCHSCHILD, Jennifer —
Political scientists rightly reject the claim that demography is destiny; political institutions, practices, and choices intervene. Nevertheless, as demography changes, a locality's politics are likely to change as well, which opens opportunities for new research programs. Three demographic changes warrant new analyses: the decline of non-Hispanic whites in most large cities, the variety of non-Anglo groups and immigrants across cities, and regional variations in the racially-inflected dependency ratio. Each demographic change generates political and scholarly controversies: are cities becoming less segregated? Is black politics a useful template for studying the politics of other groups? Is the dependency ratio more likely to exacerbate or ameliorate group conflict? I point to the odd normative valences of conservative and progressive scholarship, and urge attention to the ways in which cities can surprise us. [R]
62.8312 HOURCADE, Bernard —
Though Iran is suffering due to Western sanctions, the Islamic Republic feels it has won the nuclear battle. If the Iranian economy is in fact in crisis, it is not on the verge of collapse. Iranian officials think, therefore, that with a new national consensus they could gain more time with little concession to Western allies. The Western allies, without a doubt, are also searching for ways to delay: negotiations are therefore unlikely to progress rapidly. [R] [First of a series of articles on Where is Iran going?”, edited and introduced by Denis BAUCHARD, pp. 486–490. See also Abstr. 62.8109, 8115, 8332]
62.8313 HULIARAS, Asteris —
The paper examines the reasons that led to the break-up of Sudan. While both domestic and external factors explain the largely unanticipated outcome, domestic factors were far more important than external ones. However, the international consequences of Sudan's break-up may be far-reaching. Most international observers have claimed that the independence of South Sudan is “exceptional” and does not create a precedent for redrawing international boundaries. The paper argues that this view ignores implicit norm dynamics and argues instead that the South's secession should be considered as an addition to a number of on-going debates that increasingly question the sanctity of colonial boundaries. [R]
62.8314 JACKSON, Gregory; DEEG, Richard —
The article provides a theoretical overview and empirical summary of the contributions to this collection. The collection makes four contributions to the literature on comparative capitalism. First, its analysis of institutional change adopts a long-term historical perspective that allows us to observe the potentially transformative effects of relatively slow and incremental changes. Second, it examines the linkages between four levels of institutions that regulate the economy – the international, macro (national), meso and micro. Third, the national case studies compare change and linkages across six core institutional domains. And fourth, the cases show how institutions are shaped by different sets of sociopolitical compromises. [R] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “Changing models of capitalism” edited by the authors. See also Abstr. 62.7310, 7330, 8256, 8285, 8315, 8372, 8381]
62.8315 JACKSON, Gregory; SORGE, Arndt —
Over the last three decades, the German political economy can be characterized by both institutional continuity and change. Understanding the dynamics of institutional change therefore requires an examination of the interplay of changes in formal institutional rules and how organizations respond to these changes by strategic attempts to promote or hinder further change in institutions. The macro-level political story of institutional change shows a number of paradoxes resulting in unexpected and often incomplete forms of market liberalization shaped by continued support for some core features of Germany's social market economy. The resulting erosion of Germany's co-ordinated model of economic organization through networks and business associations has gone hand-in-hand with the attempts to preserve these institutions for core workers and sectors of the economy in the face of changing environments. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8314]
62.8316 KALPOKAS, Ignas —
The paper addresses the remembrance of events surrounding the restoration of Lithuanian independence, concentrating on the younger generation that does not have first-hand experience of the period and, therefore, has to rely on other people's accounts. If one considers the state and, especially, its social (or communal) dimension as impossible totalities, memory and history acquire significant importance as they both provide “a magma of significations”, out of which particular signifying structures are instituted in order to anchor meaning and exhort a unifying claim through dominant narratives that tend to subjugate the otherwise inevitable variety of discourses The discourse of the Lithuanian history textbooks is analyzed by outlining its emphasis on unity and self-sacrifice in 1988–1991, and by portraying the Lithuanian history as an unending struggle against enemies and their malevolent plots. [R, abr.]
62.8317 KANDEL, Pavel E. —
Southeastern European countries are unexpectedly similar to Russia in some respects, such as their socio-economic and socio-cultural advancement and the degree of development of their democratic traditions despite the fact that eventually they turn out to be more successful than Russia in terms of their transition to democracy. Still, much can be seen from what in Russia tends to be looked upon as authoritarianism. A look at each Balkan country's election history (2006–2010) and a variety of international evaluations, provided by the Gallup Balkan Monitor, help to understand modern democratic tendencies in the Balkans. All Balkan countries share the tendency to distrust politics, which can be interpreted as a consequence of the world financial crisis.
62.8318 KANDIL, Hazem —
Building on the extensive literature on relations between the state and social classes, this article examines the reasons leading important sectors of the middle class to revolt against Egypt's H. Mubarak regime. The role of the middle class in the Egyptian uprising is crucial because it was the middle class that overwhelmingly mobilized against Mubarak, with workers and peasants remaining, at least initially, on the sidelines. It is also paradoxical because the Mubarak regime had courted the middle class for a long time and the latter did benefit from its privileged relations with the regime. However, the neo-liberal reforms undertaken more recently undermined many of the material and political achievements of the middle class, which seized on the opportunity provided by the circumstances of the Arab Spring to demand political change. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8357]
62.8319 KAPLAN, Robert D. —
Mitteleuropa, Charlemagne's Europe, the divide between the old Frankish West and the Byzantine East, the gap between the Mediterranean South and the Germanic North — these identities and fault lines stretch back into the nether centuries of European history. All have been shaped over that time by the immutable force of geography, which also will shape Europe's future. [R]
62.8320 KARAYANNI, Michael M. —
The article identifies two distinct concepts of group rights in respect of the Palestinian-Arab minority that developed under Israel's constitutional definition as a “Jewish and democratic” state. One concept labeled as the “thin” concept pertains to the Palestinian-Arab minority as one national group, and a second concept labeled as the “thick” concept pertains to the Palestinian-Arab minority as a cluster of religious communities. In introducing these two concepts, the article also identifies the limits of recognizing the individual rights of Palestinian-Arab citizens when considered in light of these two concepts of group rights. [R]
62.8321 KARSH, Efraim —
The sustained anti-Israel de-legitimization campaign is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds. Since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, and since Zionism is the Jewish people's national liberation movement, anti-Zionism — as opposed to criticism of specific Israeli policies or actions — means denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination. Such a discriminatory denial of this basic right to only one nation (and one of the few that can trace their corporate identity and territorial attachment to antiquity) while allowing it to all other groups and communities, however new and tenuous their claim to nationhood, is pure and unadulterated anti-Jewish racism, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “War by other means: Israel and its detractors”, edited by the author. See also Abstr. 62.8230, 8257, 8282, 8297, 8302, 8304, 8339, 8369, 8375, 8376]
62.8322 KAY, Sean —
Ontological security, which focuses on the security of oneself, one's identity, and group affiliations, best informs the nature of sectarian conflict and conflict resolutions in contemporary Northern Ireland. This article moves the debates over the role of ontological security concepts in IR by applying a mainly theoretical discussion to testable case studies. While high-end, official peacemaking can be explained by rational actor models, constraints on peace-building remain ontologically driven. This explains the dichotomy between the dramatic reduction of violence since “the Troubles” and the existential anxieties that persist despite the peace process. [R, abr.]
62.8323 KELLY, Robert E. —
IR theory about East Asia has increasingly argued that East Asia before Western penetration enjoyed a protracted peace. A Confucian Long Peace challenges widely held, albeit Eurocentric, realist presumptions including the perils of anarchy, the arms-racing and misperception of the security dilemma, and the regularity of power balancing. This article therefore investigates, first, whether such a peace did in fact exist, and, second, whether this might be attributed to Confucianism. A cultural peace theory requires a strong anti-war cultural norm and a shared sense of community. Skepticism is established by examining three comparative cultural spaces that nonetheless did not enjoy a culturally informed peace: the classical Greek city-state system, early modern Christendom, and the contemporary Arab state system. All were deeply riven and competitive. [R, abr.]
62.8324 KENNEDY, John James —
This essay examines the factors that contribute to the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party's] ability to avoid a Jasmine Revolution at this time. First is a look at predictions of regime-change and possible reforms. Many excellent China scholars have made predictions about the CCP's collapse and rise of a new democratic regime over the last twenty years. While most of these predictions have not come to pass, previous inaccurate predictions can be useful in evaluating regime stability or the possibility of change. The article [then] addresses popular satisfaction and support for the central leadership. The CCP enjoys a much higher level of popular support than Egyptian or Tunisian leaders enjoyed before the Jasmine Revolution. The third part discusses the use of social media in China. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8196]
62.8325 KNEDLIK, Tobias; VON SCHWEINITZ, Gregor —
European authorities and scholars published proposals on which indicators of macroeconomic imbalances might be used to uncover risks for the sustainability of public debt in the EU. In this article, the ability of four proposed sets of indicators to send early warnings of debt crises is tested using a signals approach for the study of indicators and the construction of composite indicators. It is found that a broad composite indicator has the highest predictive power. This fact still holds true if equal weights are used for the construction of the composite indicator in order to reflect the uncertainty about the origin of future crises. [R]
62.8326 KOLSTØ, Pål; BLAKKISRUD, Helge —
De facto states are often dismissed as “failing states”. However, in Freedom House rankings of political rights and civil liberties, they sometimes perform better than their parent states — as has been the case with Nagorno-Karabakh. This article examines the development of democracy in Nagorno-Karabakh against a checklist of factors assumed to be relevant: cultural homogeneity, size, existential threats, role of the diaspora, and the consequences of continued non-recognition. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with central actors, the authors conclude that, contrary to what might be expected, non-recognition has played a main role in the democratization process. [R] [See Abstr. 62.7478]
62.8327 KOŃCZAL, Kornelia; WAWRZYNIAK, Joanna —
In international memory research, works from the US, France and Germany dominate the field. By contrast, most of the works on memory and remembrance by Central and East-Central European authors go unknown. This has to do with the shadow of the “iron curtain”, which still falls across parts of academia. The language barrier also plays a role. But the rich history of Polish memory research shows that even thinkers such as S. Czarnowski, who made fundamental contributions to the study of collective memory and memory research, before the terms were coined, have yet to be discovered. [R]
62.8328 KOTARSKI, Kristijan —
This article at deconstructs the widely spread view according to many media outlets, policy-analysts and commentators that the Greek crisis and the subsequent eurocrisis is the result of generous social welfare benefits and fiscal spending irresponsibility on the part of Greek politicians and citizens. I use critical IR theory to dissect the very structure of the EMU which inevitably led to the build-up of trade and fiscal imbalances in the EU's periphery as a first theoretical line of argumentation in contesting this view. A second line focuses on social constructivism and its credentials in dealing with the underlying issue of “Greek profligacy”. The diffusion of conservative attitudes regarding social welfare is put into the broader context of “new constitutionalism” and neoliberal politics. [R, abr.]
62.8329 KRECH, Hans —
Al-Qaeda in the Levant (AQL), with its sub-organizations al-Qaeda in Palestine, al-Qaeda in Lebanon and al-Qaeda in Syria, was the strongest military group in the civil war in Syria in May 2012 fighting against the Assad regime. Al-Qaeda wants to cause chaos in Syria and prevent a solution by way of negotiation. In two video messages, A. as-Zawahiri called on his followers to fight against the Assad regime. Many Salafists from several Arab nations followed his appeal and are fighting in Syria. This makes it easier for the Assad regime to discredit the people's insurgency as “terrorist” in nature. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8401]
62.8330 KUBOTA, Yuichi —
Literature expects that an attitude toward nuclear power is in direct proportion to the perceived risk of accidents at an operational nuclear power plant. However, it is misleading to assume that individuals' risk-perception alone can linearly explain their position after such an accident. The association between risk-perception and attitude toward nuclear power varies significantly according to country but, until now, has been largely unexamined. This article considers the effects of structural factors on that relationship by examining public attitudes toward nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 and reveals that the need for the efficient production of electricity (i.e., nuclear energy) outweighs concern for the potential danger of a nuclear incident. [R, abr.]
62.8331 KUNTZ, Jessica —
In the past two decades, Croatian political institutions have been through a whirlwind of change, from wartime politics, to international isolation, to gradual democratization and, most recently, to pending EU membership. This paper examines the trends in the development of political culture over this period, drawing an important distinction between democratic institution-building and liberalization. [It asks]: to what extent can changing political culture explain institutional change (and vice-versa)? Is political culture determined by, and perhaps held prisoner to, history or is it easily mutable? Drawing from the Croatian experience, in which history alone is no forecast, the paper draws lessons for other countries seeking to democratize their political culture. [R] [See Abstr. 62.6957]
62.8332 LADIER-FOULADI, Marie —
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian society has changed considerably. As women have been able to stay in school longer, Iran has seen a decline in birth rates and a challenge posed to the patriarchal order. Young people have discovered new spaces of freedom and begun to challenge the moral order imposed by the regime. The repression of the 2009 “green movement” has radicalized the opposition to President Ahmadinejad. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8312]
62.8333 LANE, Jan-Erik —
The Republic of Fiji Islands has been under military rule since December 2006. Yet, the regime of F. Bainimarama is not really like any other military regime in the world, nor does the 2006 coup resemble the earlier military interventions in the country. It is attempting development without freedom, but can it succeed? It is important to recognize that dictatorships can be of very different kinds. What happens with the Bainimarama regime will have a major impact upon the Pacific scene, not only for the Fiji Islands but also for the Pacific Forum and the role of China in regional integration. And the course of future events will depend much upon what strategy Fiji's strongman chooses and what kind of constitution is put in place. [R]
62.8334 LARUELLE, Marlène —
In Kyrgyzstan, nationalism combines a narrative on the titular ethnic group and its relation to a civic, state-based, identity, feelings of imperiled sovereignty, and a rising electorate agenda for political forces. Nationalism has therefore become the engine of an interpretative framework for Kyrgyzstan's failures and enables the society indirectly to formulate its perception of threat, both on the Uzbek and Kyrgyz sides. This article first analyzes the double identity narrative, civic and ethnic, of A. Akayev's regime, followed by the transformation toward a more ethno-centered Kyrgyz patriotism under K. Bakiev, the growing role of the theme of imperiled sovereignty and how nationalism is today becoming a key element of the political agenda and the public scene. [R]
62.8335 LAWSON, Stephanie —
The failure of democracy in Fiji is usually attributed to an ethnically fractured polity in which indigenous Fijians have asserted superior rights over those of immigrant communities, especially those of Indian descent. In 1987, an indigenous-dominated military ousted a government elected largely on the strength of Indo-Fijian votes, as did a civilian-led coup in 2000. Another in 2006, however, has confounded explanations of Fiji's politics based on a simple dichotomy of interests between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians when the military toppled a government controlled by indigenous nationalists. This article focuses on the historic production of indigenous nationalism and the demand for “ethnic democracy” and an assessment of the prospects for future constitutional government along inclusive liberal lines. [R, abr.]
62.8336 LEENDERS, Reinoud; HEYDEMANN, Steven —
This paper explores the dynamics and underlying conditions of the first few months of the uprising in Syria, from mid-March 2011 until the summer of that year. It sheds new light on patterns of social mobilization and collective action that research programs focusing on authoritarian resilience had tended to overlook. Specifically, the analysis critically and loosely borrows from, communicates with and contributes to social movement theory (SMT). Threat and opportunity — necessary elements for popular mobilization — need to be contextualized within the specific social and political environment, real or perceived, of the “early risers” in Syria, in order to appreciate their local significance. The article argues that protestors, when under threat and faced with the opportunity, collectively rose up by capitalizing on their dense social networks. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8357]
62.8337 LENARD, Patti Tamara —
Multiculturalism has been declared dead across Western Europe and, surprisingly, in Canada. The declaration of its death is premature. Instead, I argue that whether policies designated “multicultural” produce integration or segregation is in large part determined by the context in which they are implemented; in some cases, integration is proceeding smoothly while in others recent discourse concerning “integration” of migrants bears an uncomfortable resemblance to historically discredited calls for “assimilation”. Finally, I argue that to the extent (and this extent is limited) that Muslim minorities are failing to integrate, the failure is caused by host-country actions that signal their hostility towards Muslim migrants. [R]
62.8338 LESCH, David W. —
The author, an American scholar specializing in Syria and who met al-Assad on a regular basis between 2004 and 2009, offers a view of the Syrian president and the Syrian system in which he operates. In doing so, the rationale for the Syrian regime's violent crackdown against protestors, its resilience, and its commitment to eradicating dissent becomes more readily apparent. As such, the paranoia, suspicion, and determination of the Syrian leadership to remain in power will most likely lead to a continuation — and potential deterioration — of the crisis in Syria. Bashar al-Assad emerged from and is acting in a completely different reality. A better understanding of this reality will help those outside of Syria to assess and respond more appropriately to Syrian policies. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8401]
62.8339 LEVIN, Kenneth —
Jews have figured prominently in the propaganda war aimed at undermining Israel. They have joined in, and at times taken the lead in, branding the Jewish state a pariah nation and seeking to cripple its economy, deprive it of basic rights of self-defense, and challenge its very right to exist. These Jewish attacks on Israel almost invariably entail false, defamatory arguments. Their corrosive impact goes beyond the attacks themselves and entails providing an aura of legitimacy to anti-Israel attacks by non-Jews who seek to buttress their own arguments by citing Jews who make much the same arguments. While there are various reasons why individuals turn against their communities of origin, such alienation and hostility are particularly common within communities under siege. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8340 LIRU Cui —
China intends to realize its national resurgence and modernization through a peaceful path by integrating into or accepting and participating in the existing international system. With reform and opening-up as its hallmark, China's growth model is in a sense a marriage between Oriental and Occidental civilizations in the age of globalization. Openness and inclusiveness are the intrinsic attributes of this model. China's diplomacy since 1978 is essentially an extension of the national modernization drive, its chief task, basic policies and behavioral patterns being the creation of an international environment conducive to this endeavor. [R] [See the rejoinders by David SHAMBAUG [Abstr. 62.8385], and François GODEMENT [Abstr. 62.8303] [First article of a thematic issue on “A rising China and its strategic impact”. See Abstr. 62.7359, 8066, 8077, 8250]
62.8341 MATTHIJS, Matthias —
This article argues that the West still has a significant edge when it comes to most critical factors that determine long-term economic growth potential, including technology, innovative capacity, research and development, investment climate and education. Furthermore, the transatlantic economy is less vulnerable than the rest of the world to outside economic shocks and might eventually prove more capable of reform than many expect. The current malaise in the transatlantic community might therefore prove once again to be more cyclical than structural. Relying on linear projections, many are “crying wolf” again, too loud and too soon. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8063]
62.8342 MENALDO, Victor —
This article helps explain the variation in political turmoil observed in the MENA during the Arab Spring. The region's monarchies have been largely spared of violence while the “republics” have not. A theory about how a monarchy's political culture solves a ruler's credible commitment problem explains why this has been the case. Using a panel dataset of the MENA countries (1950–2006), I show that monarchs are less likely than nonmonarchs to experience political instability, a result that holds across several measures. They are also more likely to respect the rule of law and property rights and grow their economies. Through the use of an instrumental variable that proxies for a legacy of tribalism, the time that has elapsed since the Neolithic Revolution weighted by Land Quality, I show that this result runs from monarchy to political stability. [R, abr.]
62.8343 MESSARI, Nizar —
I analyze the changes in the Arab World during 2011 through some theoretical models whose objective is to explain social and popular mobilizations. I provide a key to understand these events, and then analyze their impact on the existing theoretical models. Why did the population of several Arab countries mobilize in 2011? Why did they do so almost simultaneously? From a theoretical point of view, there are two sets of conceptual explanations: (1) the existence of political opportunity structures which would have paved the way for further changes; (2) a network of events, mutually influencing each other. The Arab revolts show that speaking of structures of political opportunities privileges structure at the expense of agency, whereas agency played a key role in these events. [R, abr.]
62.8344 MESSIHA, Jean —
During the last decade, Qatar has changed status. A micro invisible state on a world map with a small presence in the regional balance in the Middle East, Qatar has become a cultural (al-Jazeera's success), diplomatic (the arbiter of political transitions) and financial (QIA) power. It is unclear whether this new role is tied to a specific situation or if it is sustainable. Several factors of fragility are highlighted. [R]
62.8345 MILLER, Benjamin —
Does democratization pacify states — and thus their respective regions — or does it make them more war-prone? This study probes the “state-to-nation balance” model as it makes the preliminary argument that democratization is not the underlying cause of either large-scale violence or peacemaking. Democratization, thus, is at best an intervening variable and in some cases has no major effects on war and peace. Rather, it is the state-to-nation balance model that better explains the war- and peace-proneness of states and regions. For an exploratory probe of this argument, the study examines Germany and Iraq — two key powers in their respective regions — and the changes they have gone through since World War I until today. [R, abr.]
62.8346 MILLER, Paul D. —
Major developments in the oil sector — rising production costs, high prices, declining reserves and new extraction methods — are decisively undermining the once-defining role of the Middle East in the global energy market. The region's potency in global affairs is on the wane, and thus President B. Obama's pivot to the more crucial East Asia is well-timed. [R]
62.8347 MITRA, Subrata —
Indian democracy, with its vitality, resilience and blemishes, is puzzling. Many democrats and human rights activists find it hard to reconcile the country's democratic achievements with its tragic failures. The article analyzes the Indian structure of governance in order to identify general rules of successful democratic transition and consolidation, and formulate some policy recommendations for the Indian and other emerging democracies. In contrast to conventional theory, the article explains the “counterfactual” nature of India's democracy and governance in terms of the ability of India's political actors to conflate the indigenous sense of dharma — righteous conduct — with modern concepts of rights, both individual and collective — acquired in course of British colonial rule. [R, abr.]
62.8348 MODOOD, Tariq —
By political secularism, I mean institutional arrangements such that religious authority and religious reasons for action and political authority and political reasons for action are distinguished; so, political authority does not rest on religious authority and the latter does not dominate political authority. Support for such arrangements can be derived from a religion or a religious authority, and certainly are supported by many religious people. On this very broad conception of political secularism, there is no necessary, absolute separation of religion and political rule, let alone that the state should be hostile to religion. Many different institutional arrangements and many different political views and ideologies, democratic and antidemocratic, liberal and illiberal, and pro-religion and anti-religion are consistent with this minimal conception of secularism. [R, abr.]
62.8349 MOLNAR, Aleksandar —
This paper critically evaluates the 2006 Serbian Constitution, and finds it an insufficient foundation of a democratic constitutional state. Based on C. Schmitt's theory, the Serbian regime is defined as most similar to a total pluralist party-state. Still, there are large cracks in the regime resulting from the dialectics of opposed tendencies towards a pro-Kosovo commissarial dictatorship and a pro-European sovereign dictatorship. The paper points out the problems facing the Serbian political actors should they strive towards constitutional consolidation of Serbia and towards making European integration part of the task of constructing a democratic constitutional state. [R, abr.]
62.8350 MONSON, Tamlyn —
This paper examines the production of knowledge about the causes of the May 2008 attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa, embodied in state actors' recourse to discursive tropes of a “third force” or mere “criminality” in explaining the attacks. It explores the way in which this “knowledge” reproduced statist notions of territory and power in the wake of a cataclysm that destabilized conventional notions of the congruence of nation, state and territory. The paper shows how official explanations of the attacks served both to camouflage the internal borders made visible by localized conflagrations and to reassert the state as the exclusive author of territorial borders. [R]
62.8351 MUXAGATO, Bruno —
The recent hydrocarbons fields discovered in the Brazilian coast are about to completely change the energy strategy of Brazil. This paper analyzes the technological, financial and environmental challenges that Brazil will face in the coming years, but also how the country is working to ensure its international insertion. [R]
62.8352 NEVILLE, Kate J.; DAUVERGNE, Peter —
On a world scale, companies and governments are acquiring tracts of land from rural communities across the developing world in what some describe as a global “land grab”. Yet looking into local settings reveals that negotiations and arrangements are often piecemeal and halting, with little resemblance to a coordinated seizure of land. Conflicting maps, overlapping territorial claims, and unclear acquisition processes are creating land disputes, mistrust, and ambiguity. Resulting cycles of contention are enabling companies to obtain — even appropriate — some land. Still, in at least some locales the process is doing more to undermine development opportunities for all parties. To probe into these local politics of mapmaking, this article draws on fieldwork from 2010 to 2011 in Tanzania's Rufiji District. [R, abr.]
62.8353 NWOSU, Bernard Ugochukwu —
The sweep of the third-wave moment of democratic impulses through Africa saw mass movements against authoritarian rule and the demand for liberalization of political spaces. Ruling-group compromises and promises of democratization diluted the fervor of this demand. Conservative interests captured the process by creating formal institutions of political competition but without corresponding necessary conditions for democracy. They set up regimes of political succession that rendered the political field a closed space. National trends in succession are linked to the discursive paradigm that underpins third-wave democratization. Selected studies of succession in African states indicate trends towards illegitimate and unpopular self-succession, hereditary trends, the appointment of proxies and only a few instances of emerging liberal democratic regimes. Perverse third-wave trajectories in Africa point to the inadequacy of the minimalist epistemology. [R, abr.]
62.8354 NYÍRI, Pál —
The highlands of mainland Southeast Asia have famously been the locus of “Zomia”, polities resistant to control by lowland nation-states, but this relative resilience has been due to their marginality. However, these semi-independent polities are trying to transform themselves from isolated drug enclaves into regional paragons of economic modernity labeled “Special Economic Zones”. The main actors in this transformation are ethnic Chinese migrant capitalists who embrace the economic rhetoric of mainland China's “growth model” to create respectability and to evoke images of a cosmopolitan future as they build casinos in the rainforest. This article examines the transformation of zones of political and criminal resistance into zones of economic development from a historical perspective of changing practices of sovereignty and shifting understandings of development. [R, abr.]
62.8355 OZNOBIŠČEVA, Galina —
From a civilizational and a cultural point of view, Russia is neither a Eurasian, nor a specifically Russian civilization, but rather a peripheral province of the Western world. A comparative historical analysis of both “universes” since Ancient Roman times, through the Renaissance and the Age of Absolutism to modern times, demonstrates that Russia still has a chance to become a Western country with an advanced and responsible civil society. While Russia's place in the modern world shows that it occupies a very specific and significant place, it cannot be said to have gone neither the Western, nor the Eastern way of progress, but rather that it stands somewhere in-between.
62.8356 ÖZPEK, Burak Bilgehan —
Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdish politicians were involved in Baghdad governments, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) became a federal unit with increased autonomy. Nevertheless, the KRG's quest for keeping its autonomy was challenged after the withdrawal of US forces at the end of 2011. When US forces left Iraq, the Baghdad government, headed by Prime Minister N. Al-Maliki, the leader of the Shi'ite State of Law Coalition, tried to centralize power. Unsurprisingly, Maliki's centralization efforts have generated criticism and secessionist repercussions among Kurdish political circles. [R, abr.]
62.8357 PACE, Michelle; CAVATORTA, Francesco —
The “Arab Awakening” surprised both scholars and policy-makers. For over a decade, the paradigm of authoritarian resilience had dominated studies of the Arab world, almost entirely replacing the democratization paradigm that had been prominent throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This inter-paradigm debate now calls for a review. The contributions to this issue offer a first attempt at highlighting some of the theoretical issues that should inform our rethinking of this debate thus far. Overall the issue provides a deeper insight into the socio-economic–political structures and the new actors that led to the uprisings in the Arab world. It also explores and considers the opportunities and constraints that these structures offer for sharpening our theoretical tools — which may in turn lead us to use the paradigms and models more flexibly. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “Political developments in the Arab world: theoretical reflections on the uprisings”. See also Abstr. 62.8273, 8283, 8290, 8318, 8336]
62.8358 PALAZUELOS, Enrique —
This article has been constructed under the premise that IPE [International Political Economy] provides the appropriate analytical tools for understanding the characteristics and performance of oil in economic and political relations. The article argues the need to articulate three levels of analysis (major players, scenarios, and exchange mechanisms) in order to understand the economic and political relations that underpin oil exchange during last decades. The central conclusion is that the current oil system is characterized by a set of asymmetric, unstable, and ungovernable relations, whose consequences are unpredictable but not necessarily traumatic. [R]
62.8359 PALAZUELOS, Enrique; FERNÁNDEZ, Rafael —
Kazakhstan became a petro-state in the 1990s, after signing important oil production agreements with several transnational companies. In recent years, Kazakhstan's government has imposed the revision of former agreements on these corporations. This article contends that said revision has allowed the national players — government and the state oil company — to extend rent-seeking, but that the changes have not been deep enough to attain national oil empowerment. This means that national players do not control the oil cycle — from upstream to export trade — and are unable to secure continued expansion in the oil sector. Both key issues remain in the hands of the foreign companies, although their prominence has diversified following the entry of large Chinese and Russian companies. [R]
62.8360 PATIENCE, Allan —
This article first surveys several understandings of state failure, the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and proposes a category of states suffering under specific forms of misgovernance: ruined states — the consequence of ruling elites' unwillingness or incapacity to guarantee human security (freedom from want and fear) for their citizens. This unwillingness and/or incapacity is described as the new cannibalism — alluding to the devouring of state resources by corrupt and incompetent power elites, resulting in widespread suffering among the peoples they govern. Second, the article summarizes the decline in governance in Papua New Guinea over some three decades of independence, noting the unfolding of high levels of corruption and incapacity in politics and the civil service. [R, abr.]
62.8361 PAVLOV, Nikolaj V. —
In the globalized world of the 21st c., new laws, threats and demands operate which determine states' interaction. While they do share a lot in terms of their views, Germany and Russia differ in one significant respect: while Germany is deeply interested in the Euro-Atlantic structure, Russia is not. Still, Germany continues to consider Russia a strategic partner without which, or rather regardless of which, it is impossible to solve either regional, or global demands and problems. In order to better understand each of the two countries, it is necessary to compare and contrast their actions in several important areas: security policy, population issues, the fight against international terrorism, climate policy and environmental protection, the economy, energy, and society.
62.8362 PEARCE, Justin —
This article explores political mobilization, legitimacy, and identity in the Angolan Central Highlands from the anti-colonial struggle of the 1960s until the end of the civil war in 2002. It examines how the rival movements, MPLA and UNITA, competed for support, and considers the nature of the relationships between political-military elites and the Angolan people. Whereas much scholarship on civil war has focused on the emergence of rebellions against the state, I argue that such an approach to the Angolan war is inappropriate since both protagonists were founded as anti-colonial movements and both organizations developed characteristics of states to different degrees. People expressed support for either or both movements in terms of common interest and identity, which in turn were shaped by the political education of the movement in control at the time. [R, abr.]
62.8363 PEIFFER, Caryn; ENGLEBERT, Pierre —
In seeking to maintain their power, many African regimes rely on strategies of extraversion, converting their dependent relations with the external world into domestic resources and authority. This article assesses the relationship between extraversion and political liberalization. African countries vary in their extraversion portfolios, or the dimensions of their relations to the outside world that they can instrumentalize, and these variations correspond both to different degrees of vulnerability to the demands of foreign donors and to different preferences from the donors themselves. We find four quantitative measures of extraversion vulnerability to be statistically associated with the initial transitions of the 1989–1995 period and with the “consolidations” at different levels of democracy observable between 1995 and 2011. These findings shed new light on both democratic and hybrid regime trajectories in Africa. [R, abr.]
62.8364 PEÑA RAMOS, José Antonio; ORTEGA VILLODRES, Carmen; JORDÁN, Javier —
This piece of work presents a series of findings resulting from an ongoing research on the socio-political integration of Muslim immigrants in Spain. Provisional findings stipulate the emergence of enhanced identities and, possibly, the move towards the “communitarian closure” of some immigrants' communities. However, a favorable attitude for political participation, mostly in terms of electoral turnout, is highlighted, leading to a successful process of socio-political integration. [R]
62.8365 PHILLIPS, Christopher —
While there is a sliver of hope that a negotiated solution in Syria can be found, the Assad regime seems willing to destroy the country rather than give up power. The future looks bleak. [R]
62.8366 PHIRI, Madalitso Zililo —
The article investigates the state of Mozambique's political economy 20 years after the end of its civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO, in 1992. It is written from the theoretical perspectives of growing criticism of the neo-liberal assumptions that underlie development policy and places the analysis of Mozambique's economic growth and development within the field of development studies as they are played out in African realities. Mozambique is viewed by the donor community and multilateral institutions as a success story of postwar construction, yet a closer look at the development outcomes in Mozambique calls this conclusion into question. [R, abr.]
62.8367 PIETRAŚ, Marek —
As an international relations area, Central and Eastern Europe are not united by common institutions, history, identity or a shared sense of community with respect to the rest of the world. The process of transition since the collapse of the bipolar system is not complete and different countries participate in integration processes with different intensity. Four elements are especially vital for an international order's formation and its proper functioning in a post-Cold War Europe: a system of shared political values and institutional ties; a process of modernization; a system of accepted norms; a structure of alignment.
62.8368 PIRIE, Iain —
A key theme within the literature on the evolution of the Korean political economy since the 1997/8 crisis has been the extent to which Korea remains a “developmental state” or has pursued radical neoliberal reform. By the late 1980s, Korea was regarded as a model of successful state-led late capitalist development. Questions relating to the extent that it has pursued neoliberal reform have been of keen interest to students of political economy globally. This paper argues that substantive neoliberal reform has taken place in Korea since 1997. The thesis that a new “developmental state” is in process of consolidating itself is simply wrong. In order to fully understand the complexity of the contemporary Korean political economy it is necessary, therefore, to prioritize the importance of meso-level analysis. [R, abr.]
62.8369 POLLER, Nidra —
De-legitimization of the State of Israel is the current episode in a persistent genocidal project aimed at the Jews and, more profoundly, at the values inherent in Judaism and shared by civilized societies. Skirting the shame attached to anti-Semitism after the horrors of the Holocaust, contemporary advocates of the genocidal plot are given free rein to attack Jews by a combination of severe criticism of Israel and well-meaning plans for its geopolitical future, i.e. the peace process. Ugly lies — the Jews stole the land from the Palestinians, Israel is an apartheid state — function like the age-old charges that justified persecution of the Jews as Christ-killers. Beautiful lies — the two-state solution that everyone knows — echo the proto-legalistic measures that gradually deprived European Jews of their rights, their strength, their resources and capacity to resist deportation and extermination. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8370 PONTUSSON, Jonas; RAESS, Damian —
This article compares government responses to the Great Recession of 2008–2009 with government responses to recessions and other economic challenges in the period 1974–1982. We focus on five countries: France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US. Across these countries, we observe two broad shifts in crisis responses: (1) governments have in the recent period eschewed heterodox crisis policies and relied more exclusively on fiscal stimulus; (2) tax cuts have become a more important component of fiscal stimulus while spending cuts have featured more prominently in governments' efforts to consolidate their fiscal position. We argue that crisis responses reflect the interests and power of domestic actors as well as external constraints and the nature of the economic problems at hand. [R]
62.8371 RADAKOVIĆ, Milovan —
The author [defines] “geopolitics” and “conflict” and “Horn of Africa”. [Then], he characterizes and classifies the conflict between African countries. The work also analyzes geopolitical characteristics of the Horn of Africa and provides a brief synthesis of the countries in the region. Further, it explains the mutual relations and the nature of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, current military presence in the Horn of Africa and the importance of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. The author analyzes the energy connection between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, regional and interregional impacts on the Horn of Africa countries. [R]
62.8372 RANGONE, Marco; SOLARI, Stefano —
Before the 1980s Italy had the typical institutional configuration of Southern European capitalism: an important role for the state in controlling production activities and markets; limited social security; and high employment protection. In the last 30 years, Italian capitalism underwent a process of institutional change moving away from this configuration. The deepest reforms occurred in the 1990s and aimed to achieve a more market-oriented economy to cope with European market integration. Reforms, however, did not succeed in moving the economy towards a “liberal market economy”: they simply increased laissez-faire without achieving better co-ordination through markets, leaving Italy with an inefficient model. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8314]
62.8373 REWIZORSKI, Marek —
A democratic transition, though important, is only one of a variety of ways of explaining an Arabian “wind of change”. Having some insight into the potential role of economics in the uprising one may suggest that protesters hid themselves behind a “curtain of democracy” while in fact they were screaming against unbearable living standards, deteriorating food security, child malnutrition, youth unemployment, corruption and overall poverty, which rise despite GDP growth. Unemployment, inflation and inequality are all inextricably bound up with the political context. Still, the Arab Spring is really about jobs, bread and housing rather than democracy, which is second in line.
62.8374 RICHTER, Sandor —
The entrance of the five Central European countries into the EU has resulted in a disruption of their economic positions. Trade with the EU has become dominant. Foreign investments are mainly from EU countries for the benefit of those states who have also been the main beneficiaries of redistributive transfers within the EU. They, however, have different perspectives with respect to the single currency; some have adopted it while others show some reluctance. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8383]
62.8375 ROSENFELD, Alvin H. —
The involvement of Jews in the much-publicized May 2010 Mavi Marmara incident at sea is but one instance of many that illustrates Jewish collusion with Israel's detractors and defamers. While their numbers remain relatively small, the impact of such Jews in fostering a public rhetoric of anti-Israel vilification is growing and needs to be taken seriously. The current propaganda war against the Jewish state is, among other things, a language war, and close scrutiny of today's anti-Zionist discourse is essential. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8376 ROSSMAN-BENJAMIN, Tammi —
Members of Muslim and pro-Palestinian student organizations and anti-Zionist faculty are the two main sources of anti-Jewish bigotry at the University of California (UC), and their behavior has had two primary effects: the anti-Semitic language and imagery used by these individuals has caused significant harm to the reputation of Israel and its supporters, both on and off campus; and their behavior has created a hostile and threatening environment for many Jewish students on UC campuses. Efforts to address the problem of anti-Semitism on UC campuses have generally targeted one of these two effects. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.8321]
62.8377 SAGRAMOSO, Domitilla —
This essay shows how the various Islamic communities or jamaats that emerged in the Muslim republics of the Russian North Caucasus during the early 1990s have evolved since then. Originally conceived as peaceful religious organizations embracing strict Islamic Salafi principles, many of these communities have transformed themselves into fighting units sharing many of the traits of jihadist Islamic movements worldwide. By analyzing the radical Islamic discourse and the strategies of leading jihadist fighters in the Russian North Caucasus, this essay also illustrates how their views, ideas and tactics have become similar, if not identical, to the beliefs held and the practices conducted by fighters of global and regional jihadist movements worldwide. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8176]
62.8378 SAKELLAROPOULOS, Spyros —
The social explosion of December 2008 in Greece represented a postscript from the future. In a country where the consequences of the global economic crisis had already begun to make themselves felt — in conjunction with the collapse of a specific model for integration into the global division of labor — it had become evident that the younger generations were destined to experience a much worse future than preceding generations. The realization that unemployment, flexible working hours and hyper-exploitation would be the norm, in combination with other conjunctural questions (an exacerbation of repression, political scandals, sharpening of the migration question), resulted in the situation whereby the country with the richest leftist traditions in Western Europe witnessed an explosion of the greatest youth revolt of the last 30 years. [R, abr.]
62.8379 SALE, Richard T. —
Islam is on the march in the Middle East. For the past few years, in every Mideast election, the Islamic parties have won: in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and in Iraq and Tunisia in 2010. In 2011, they won again in Turkey and Morocco, and in Egypt the Islamist parties confirmed an overwhelming victory in the first parliamentary elections since the overthrow of H. Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood won the biggest share with the hard-line Salafist al Nour Party of Light. The youth groups that staged the demonstrations that toppled Mubarak took only seven seats. What are the implications for US policy and its ideals of self-determination and human rights? Will the liberals triumph, or will the Egyptian people face a hard-line Islamic future? [R, abr.]
62.8380 SALVATORE, Armando —
The “Arab Spring”, which started in Tunisia at the end of 2010 but fully erupted through the Egyptian revolutionary events of January and February 2011, has had the merit of triggering a set of interrogations not only concerning the role of “new” media in the revolutions, but also and more broadly on the key question of how to transform the connectedness built among people through communication forums and media into a sustained political communication. [R]
62.8381 SCHNYDER, Gerhard —
This contribution reassesses the evolution of the Swedish model since the 1970s across different institutional spheres. It addresses two questions. Firstly, why did a system that was based on strong complementarities undergo such extensive changes? Secondly, what explains Sweden's recent return to strong social and economic performance? The decline of the Swedish model is explained by the endogenous nature of change, which was sparked off by “normative dissonances” that led actors to “defect” from crucial institutions, leading to knock-on effects on other spheres through changing political strategies and macro-level political coalitions. It is further argued that the new complementarities that have emerged after 1995, while providing new sectors with institutional advantages, also contain sources of normative dissonances, which make the long-term viability of the “new model” doubtful. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8314]
62.8382 SCHRAEDER, Peter J. —
The “Jasmine Revolution” sparked the imagination of the Arab world and produced a domino effect, as pro-democracy demonstrators confronted dictatorships across the Middle East and North Africa, including toppling the thirty-year dictatorship of Egyptian leader H. Mubarak in February 2011, and the forty-two-year dictatorship of Libyan leader M. el-Qaddafi in October 2011. The remainder of this article answers three questions: what factors motivated the Tunisian protests? What enabled these protests to be successful? And what are the implications for future international interventions to support popular sovereignty. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8196]
62.8383 SCHREIBER, Thomas —
The nomenklatura, which supposedly disappeared with communism, continues to exist in the political vocabulary of Eastern European countries. The decision-makers that now run these countries are a combination of heirs of the dissidence and young elites trained mostly in the West. The origin of these new elites explains the particular positions they adopt with respect to economies, the strategic choices they favor for the construction of Europe, and for the defense of their national interests. [R] [First of a series of articles on “Is Central Europe western?”, edited and introduced by the author, pp. 548–550. See also Abstr. 62.8083, 8374]
62.8384 ENAY, Banu —
How does the Turkish state reach out to its nationals and expatriates abroad? In what ways does the Turkish Republic seek to make Islam (as it does in Turkey) into an instrument legitimizing its politicizing and mobilizing enterprises? To explore these questions, this article investigates the long-distance Kemalism engaged in by the Turkish state to Turkify and secularize its nationals in the diaspora, using its activities in Australia as its case study. In sketching out trans-Kemalism's dimensions, the analysis directs attention to the intimate relationship between the political and religious fields of transnationalism manufactured by the state. The paper concludes that the intense political polarization in Turkey in the present makes the future of trans-Kemalism abroad somewhat uncertain. [R, abr.]
62.8385 SHAMBAUGH, David —
This rejoinder to Cui Liru's article argues that China's modernization mission is enduring; that there continues to be a large mismatch in China's view of the world and how the world views China; it questions China's commitment to political reform; it discusses the economic challenges facing China and questions whether there is a distinct and unique China growth model; it assesses China's impact as a rising power on the international system; and it critiques China's global diplomacy and the future of US-China relations. The rejoinder is more circumspect on these issues than Cui's original article. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8340]
62.8386 SHARMA, Kishor —
This article discusses the role that politics and governance have played in the current state of affairs in Nepal, citing a lack of vision among political leadership and their inability to understand the consequences of socio-economic exclusion as the roots of the current political crisis in Nepal. It outlines the resultant problems of the centralization of power, corruption, a bias towards urban development and especially the historical exclusion of minority and underprivileged classes from participation in governance and mainstream politics. it is argued that there is a need to introduce bold reforms in economic policy, politics and the institutional setup to sustain growth and increase the collective voice and bargaining power for all disadvantaged groups. [R]
62.8387 SIMONIJA, Aida A. —
Modern Burma is a political hybrid: a military-civil government under the control of the army. A brief study of Burma's history and its military regime in particular allows for the identification of some of the reasons for the junta's stability thanks not only to specific circumstances, but also to Than Shwe's personal qualities and political strategy. Burma's history also helps to explain the complex mechanism of Thein Sein's rise to power and the initiatives of the new leadership following the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi. The decision to elect Burma as the presiding country of ASEAN in 2014 indicates political approval of the recent changes.
62.8388 SØRENSEN, Aerenlund Bo —
Over the past decade, scholarly consensus has moved away from viewing turmoil in Turkey as a product of religious-cultural incompatibility with modernization. Instead, scholars have shown that the rise of an Islamic elite has expanded democracy in Turkey, while often vexing the secularist elite. This article reviews the most important of the new scholarship, but criticizes it for inheriting the assumption that all events in Turkey somehow hinge upon Islamist-secularist antagonism. Alternatively, insights from sociology are employed to argue that domestic Turkish discord is intimately related to industrialization and democratization, and that excessive attention to supposedly religious conflict blinds much contemporary scholarship to the intolerant Sunni-Turkish nationalism cultivated by the Turkish state. [R]
62.8389 STEIN, Ewan —
In retrospect, the January 2011 revolution in Egypt appears to have amounted to an intra-regime coup, with the military faction prevailing over a rival business faction. The full story is more complex. [R]
62.8390 STONES, Rob; TANGSUPVATTANA, Ake —
The paper argues for social theory's potential for productive critical engagement with news and current affairs accounts. Such accounts typically offer free-floating, surface, spectacles, and oversimplified linear narratives. Social theory suggests that it is much more appropriate to embed complex social processes in plural and configurational narratives. A synthesis of strong structuration theory, critical realism, and cultural sociology is employed to produce a theorized frame — underpinned by configurations of powers, norms, and values — through which to critically engage with, and assess, media accounts of current affairs. A sustained and focused analysis of recent political conflict in Thailand reveals the superior capacity of social theory to deal with the complexity of the moral, causal, and strategic issues involved. [R]
62.8391 STOW, Simon —
[Although] the New Orleans Katrina Memorial is located at the upper end of Canal Street, [not far] from the city's tourist hub, it is little visited and largely unknown, even to many of the city's own residents. In this it stands in stark contrast to the [US] National 11 September [2001] Memorial in Lower Manhattan. Recent work in political theory on memory, mourning, and memorialization point to the ways in which the manner of remembrance, grieving, and commemoration employed by a democratic polity help to shape political outcomes. I trace the history and design of the New York City and New Orleans memorials to suggest the ways in which they embody and perpetuate national strategies of remembrance and forgetting, in which injustices perpetrated against the polity are prioritized over injustices perpetrated within it. [R, abr.]
62.8392 TAHERI, Amir —
As the “Arab Spring” changes the political landscape of the Middle East, the oil-rich monarchies, led by Saudi Arabia, are working to stop the revolutionary movement at their borders. The effort to date, however, has been far from successful. Changes at the top tier of leadership structures have already happened in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, albeit for different reasons. In Kuwait, a revolt by parliamentarians last winter led to the resignation of the Prime Minister. In Saudi Arabia, the death of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud paved the way for a reshuffling of the cards within the ruling family, with ripples going through the kingdom's political structure. These changes could affect the kingdom's domestic and foreign policies in the years to come. [R]
62.8393 TEKDAL FILDIS, Ayse —
Arab nationalism, developed mainly by the Sunni Muslim community, was perceived as a threat by the French as well as by the Christians and the heterodox Muslim communities (Druzes, Ismailis and Alawites). Therefore, the French mandate administration cultivated a friendly relationship with the Druze, Alawites and some smaller communities. The mandate administration thus granted autonomy to Syria's two regionally compact minority groups, the Druze and the Alawites, and to the multicommunal regions of Alexandretta and the Jazirah. The French policy of divide and rule eroded the ties among Syria's religious and ethnic groups, forging factions within each group and against the others. The French balanced ethnic representation by placing separate ethnicities at the head of different institutional branches of government, allowing one ethnic or religious group to be strongly represented in an institution. [R, abr.]
62.8394 THORHALLSSON, Baldur; KIRBY, Peadar —
The article examines the claims of the small-states literature on the importance of alliance-formation. It applies it to the case of Ireland and Iceland and asks whether membership of the EU and euro in Ireland and the absence of these in Iceland had a say in their reduction of risk before the financial crisis, assistance in absorbing the shock of their crash and help in recovering after it. The article argues that the notion of shelter needs to take more account of domestic arrangements and the shelter's costs though the cases confirm the importance of alliance-formation. [R]
62.8395 TRENIN, Dmitri —
Russian society is awakening and issues of domestic political and economic performance have come under closer scrutiny. To respond to the change, the Kremlin has moved to modify its method of governance — and strengthen its instruments of control — but there can be no return to the past. How the political process will evolve, and what the results will be, is impossible to predict, but the change will impact on Russia's domestic and foreign policies. In the meantime, Russia's international partners will have to deal with a familiar set of policies aimed at balancing between Moscow's real needs, its views of Russia's role and the opportunities which present themselves. [R]
62.8396 UNRUH, Jon D. —
Land rights in Darfur act as a principal protagonist to the cause and maintenance of the ongoing armed conflict. The internal functioning and interaction of statutory, customary, and Islamic legal regimes regarding land have facilitated significant aspects of the war, and their reform will be fundamental to any effective peace process. This article describes the role of these legalities in the conflict. Subsequent to a description of the legal environment, the article examines the legal crisis regarding land rights, focusing on six aspects: the repercussions of a single law, the exclusionary customary system, Islamic law, profound confusion over concepts and terms, institutional disarray, and the peace accords. [R]
62.8397 VAN DAM, Nikolaos —
The uprising (2011-) of the Syrian people against the Ba'ath dictatorship has brought Syria to the abyss of a bloody civil war. Western governments have with justification criticized the al-Assad dictatorship for its crimes against humanity, they have imposed sanctions and have declared al-Assad to have lost his legitimacy. They did not engage, however, in any kind of parallel political dialogue with Damascus, and thereby cut themselves off from playing a direct role in helping solve the crisis. Dialogue with the aim of political reform and peaceful transformation of Ba'athist dictatorship into a more democratic system remains the “least bad” option to be supported. In the end, it is up to the Syrians themselves to come to a solution. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8401]
62.8398 VORONOV, Konstantin V. —
Due to their location, EU members Denmark, Sweden, Finland and non-member Norway and Iceland have long remained outside the threatening context of some destructive European processes, such as the dysfunctioning of the economic and social models, the unfavorable population dynamics, and the rise of political Islam. Recently, however, these states suddenly have been confronted with many similar problems at home, including terrorism and political extremism and the threats of controllable migration. Despite their modest scale and limited resources, Scandinavia and Finland have an influence on common regional macro tendencies and the EU's transformation as a whole. These countries' relations with the EU are also directly linked to the development Russian-European relations.
62.8399 WHITING, Sophie A. — “
In modern-day Irish republicanism, “dissident” is utilized by the media and mainstream politicians to collectively label a broad range of groups and individuals who reject that participation in constitutional politics, in its current form, will achieve their ultimate goal of a United Ireland. This article investigates the discourse from the mainstream media and politicians surrounding dissident groups in order to explore the construction of the “dissident” profile. It then considers the composing and transporting of the political messages from two republican groups, Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM). This article undertakes a content analysis of the two group's newspapers (Saoirse and Sovereign Nation) over seven years and questions how “dissidents” attempt to defend and justify their position in relation to this mainstream media narrative, assessing how dissidents attempt a counter-narrative. [R, abr.]
62.8400 WIARDA, Howard J. —
Criticizing the concept of an “Arab Spring”, the author is pessimistic about democracy and development in the Arab countries that have recently overthrown authoritarian leaders. Overthrowing a dictatorship is much easier than building a functioning democracy and a stable society to replace it. Few countries in the Arab Middle East have the requisite level of civil society, institutions, middle class, political culture, level of socio-economic development, and proximity to other developed democracies (the mentoring factor) to support democracy. Reviewing the literature on democracy and development, the author systematically assesses the Arab Middle East in light of its democratic prospects. His prognosis is pessimistic — at least in the short run. As for US policy, the author recommends greater realism and less romance and wishful thinking. [R, abr.]
62.8401 WIELAND, Carsten —
Syria's President B. al-Assad ruled for a decade before arriving at the end of his tether. His legacy was to leave his country in ruins, its morale and social fabric destroyed, perhaps beyond repair. No matter how the bloody revolt in his country plays out, his political capital will have been spent. How could this have happened after such a hopeful and auspicious start to his rule in June 2000? The story of his political career is a series of missed chances and practical failures. Throughout his rule, Assad emphasized his strong personal relationship to the “beloved people of Syria”. Despite waves of significant popular support during the years of his rule, this rhetoric proved to be a self-delusion. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Syria under Bashar al-Assad”, introduced by Raymond HINNEBUSCH, “Syria's geopolitics”, pp. 8–13. See also Abstr. 62.8126, 8204, 8255, 8329, 8338, 8397]
62.8402 WOODS, Dwayne —
There is a growing recognition that the concept neopatrimonialism is deeply flawed. An emergent critical literature is highlighting its conceptual expansiveness and drift. Many authors within this literature are calling for the concept to be jettisoned altogether. This article, illustrating its central contentions with a case study of patrimonialism in the Kingdom of Swaziland, joins the chorus of critiques against the concept. Instead of entirely dismissing the concept, however, argues that it should be rescaled back to Weber's core idea of legitimate domination and that the appended “neo” should be dropped. Moreover, since it is a thin concept, it has little analytical leverage on its own and needs to be grounded in robust theoretical frameworks. [R]
62.8403 WRIGHT, Matthew; CITRIN, Jack; WAND, Jonathan —
Studies of national identity distinguish between ethnic and civic nations and have sought to identify these alternative conceptions of national identity in public opinion. The standard measurement technique is to assess the normative content of American national identity by asking survey respondents to rate the importance of particular traits for making someone a “true” American. We argue that such measures are problematic, chiefly because of the impact of nonrandom measurement error. We explore the influence of using ranking measures instead of ratings, using a survey experiment conducted on a nationally representative sample of Americans in 2008. We develop a new statistical method that effectively “converts” ratings into scores that approximate rankings, resulting in the creation of more valid measures of both ethnic and civic national identities. [R, abr.]
62.8404 WYNNE-HUGHES, Elisa — “
This article examines the tension between British and Egyptian counterterrorism discourses and Western tourism industry discourses. I analyze how guidebooks like the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet attract tourists by representing Egypt as an appealing tourist destination in a way that accounts for its positioning, in counterterrorism discourses, as a location and source of terrorism. They do so by producing “risk” in a very specific way. Guidebooks justify the production of “states of exception” and “exceptional states” that exclude “bad” Muslims and protect Western tourists. These strategies function together to construct Egypt as non-threatening and appealing to tourists. This article highlights the constitutive role of tourism in international politics and simultaneously helps us better understand the complex and mundane means by which the current Western liberal order is (re)produced. [R, abr.]
62.8405 XENAKIS, Sappho —
With the arrest and conviction of members of the Greek Revolutionary Organization 17 November in the early 2000s, the chapter appeared to be closing on one of the last of a generation of urban guerrillas in Western Europe. Before the end of that decade, however, not only had a new batch of violent political organizations arisen in Greece, but the country had also experienced its worst social unrest in over thirty years. This article summarizes key features of political violence in Greece between 1974 and 2011, and highlights the importance of three factors to explaining the resumption of organized political violence in the 2000s: the socio-economic environment, the treatment of radical demands by the political system, and the dynamics of violence between the state and non-state groups. [R, abr.]
62.8406 ZABARAH, Dareg A. —
The existence and the effective utilization of opportunity structures by the Gagauz and Pridnestrovian elites between 1989 and 1991 enabled them to successfully mobilize wide parts of the population, take control of the administration and build parallel state structures out of the control of both Chişinâu and Moscow. The Pridnestrovian elites were more successful in the effective utilization of such opportunity structures than their Gagauz counterparts. Access to vast economic and political resources, political unity, and strong organizational skills combined with a creative interpretation of the right to self-determination enabled the former to pursue their secession policy with greater efficiency. [R] [See Abstr. 62.7478]
62.8407 ZHEMUKHOV, Sufian —
This article focuses on problems of the national movement of the Circassians — a small nation in the Caucasus, most of whose population is dispersed all over the world. The paper researches the development of the Circassian movement from 1989–2000 and its contemporary structure since 2005. The modern Circassian movement as a whole has never been approached from a political science viewpoint. This research answers several core questions: What are the different strands of the movement? What principles are they based on? Who are the participants? What political forces support them? How do these political forces interact with each other? [R]
62.8408 ZOLLINGER, Daniel; BOCHSLER, Daniel —
This article suggests that in most semi-democracies, the same solution might not be that favorable to minorities. Many semi-democratic countries either restrict party competition or limit parties of ethnic minorities, including: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Gabon, Kenya, Mauritania, and Congo (Brazzaville). This article highlights the impact of the electoral system and the importance of political plurality and electoral district design in such contexts. The article argues that the interests of minorities are best protected if they can elect their representatives in small, ethnically homogeneous electoral districts. Plurality or majority voting systems offer minorities the possibility to run with independent candidates. The case study [examines] elections to municipal councils in Georgia in 2006 under a mixed electoral system seem to reflect the hypothesized pattern. [R]
62.8409 ZOUBIR, Yahia H. —
In the late 1980s, prospects for Maghreb integration were high; the process of integration reflected the aspirations of Maghreb states and societies. However, analysis shows that the process was merely a response to internal and external events of that period, namely, economic difficulties, “fortress Europe”, and the rise of radical Islamism. Following the Arab Spring, incessant calls for unity have re-emerged. Once again, these calls for unity, after a long period of tense relations, especially between Algeria and Morocco, have resulted from internal and external constraints. The threats to the incumbent regimes and/or the insecurity prevailing domestically and at the borders have compelled the Maghreb states to seek greater cooperation to overcome the hardships with which they are faced. [R] [See Abstr. 62.8217]
62.8410 ZOUBIR, Yahia H.; RÓZSA, Erzsébet N. —
The 42-year dictatorship in Libya finally collapsed in October 2011; it took the Western-backed armed uprising seven months of intensive fighting to defeat Qaddafi's loyalist forces. The fall of the Qaddafi regime is a welcome development in the Middle East and North Africa region. But, unlike Tunisia or Egypt, Libya does not have a standing army or a reliable potential force that can bring the necessary stability for a political transition. The tribal nature of the country and the difficulty of disarming the rebels and other groups pose serious challenges to the new authorities in Tripoli. Unless these issues are handled effectively, Libya will undergo a long period of unpredictability. [R]
62.8411 ZUERN, Elke —
Many examples have been documented of the varying successes of domestic movement organizations employing international support. Much less attention has been paid to cases lacking significant organizations, but small groups and even individuals can draw attention to their demands if they effectively engage transnational interest. Genocide offers a particularly potent means of generating attention. Namibia is engaged in domestic debates over crimes committed by German forces over a century ago. In a country with no large opposition party and no significant social movement mobilization, a number of relatively small groups of activists are indirectly challenging the power of the dominant party by correcting its one-sided narrative of the country's anti-colonial heroes. [R, abr.]
62.8412 ZUKOWSKI, Arkadiusz —
Modern borders in Africa do not entirely correspond to ethnic divisions, but rather trace the borders of former colonies. While new research approaches, such as New Regionalism, emerge as research paradigms in Poland, the problem of African borders and borderlands finds little place in the activities of Polish authorities. A current goal, therefore, is to develop a comprehensive plan for Polish cooperation with Africa. Especially helpful models are cross-border cooperation areas which include European Union territories and NATO members and nonmembers. A good example is the Polish-Russian borderland: the Warmia and Mazury Region on the Polish side and Kaliningrad Region on the Russian side.
62.8413
Articles by F. Gregory GAUSE, III and Ian S. LUSTICK, “America and the regional powers in a transforming Middle East”, pp. 1–39; William A. RUGH, “Egyptian politics and American diplomacy”, pp. 36–48; Abdeslam MAGHRAOUI, “The perverse effect of good governance: lessons from Morocco”, pp. 49–64; Yahia H. ZOUBIR and Ahmed AGHROUT, “Algeria's path to reform: authentic change?”, pp. 65–83.
62.8414
Articles by Jonathan FENBY; Oliver RADTKE; Liu YOUFA; David SHAMBAUGH.
62.8415
Articles by Maximilian FELSCH; Nadine SIKA; Kristian BRAKEL; Felipe DAZA SIERRA; Ingrid EL MASRY.
62.8416
Articles by Elena PALLANTZA; Vassilis S. TSIANOS and Dimitri PARSANOGLOU; Karl BRENKE; Loukas LYMPEROPOULOS; Heinz A. RICHTER; Danae COULMAS; Andreas STERGIOU; Eberhard RONDHOLZ.
62.8417
Introduction by Giuliano AMATO, pp. 5–9. Articles by Gilles PÉCOUT; Paolo BISCARETTI DI RUFFIA; Silvia ILLARI; Libero LENTI; Renata TARGETTI LENTI; Guido MARTINOTTI; Luciano MISSELLI; Arianna ARISI ROTA; Giuseppe BERTA; Paolo MAZZARELLO; Gian Paolo CALCHI NOVATI; Elisa SOGNORI; Maurizio FERRERA and Franca MAINO; Pietro Giuseppe GRASSO; Sergio ROMANO; Vito TANZI; Arturo COLOMBO.
62.8418
A thematic issue edited and introduced by Arnaud de RAULIN. Articles by Hugues HELLIO, on Libya, pp. 268–288; Arnaud de RAULIN and Christine ISKANDAR, on Egypt, pp. 289–296 and 297–300; Jean-Philippe BRAS, on Tunisia, pp. 301–318; Ali KAIROUANI, on Morocco, pp. 319–333; Nicolas CLINCHAMPS, on Syria, pp. 334–346; Abdelwahab BIAD, on Algeria, pp. 347–255; Georges SAAD, on the view from Lebanon, pp. 356–363.
62.8419
Articles by Lionel CLIFFE, “Kicking off a debate on Tanzania's 50 years of independence”, pp 101–102; Issa G. SHIVJI, “Nationalism and pan-Africanism: decisive moments in Nyerere's intellectual and political thought”, pp. 103–116; John S. SAUL, “Tanzania fifty years on (1961–2011): rethinking ujamaa, Nyerere and socialism in Africa”, pp. 117–125; Lionel CLIFFE, “Fifty years of making sense of independence politics”, pp. 127–131.