Abstract
65.7527 ABDOLMOHAMMADI, Pejman; CAMA, Giampiero —
This article is based on the assumption that the Iranian political system is a peculiar form of a hybrid regime and is based on two hypotheses. The first is that the originality of the Iranian political system depends on two main factors: a constitutional compromise between the secular and clerical components and the particular way in which presidential elections are held. The second hypothesis concerns the consequences of this institutional arrangement. On the one hand, in particular phases, presidential elections may play an inclusive function thanks to a certain degree of responsiveness of ordinary policies. On the other hand, they may instead raise the expectations and political demands for regime-change that, if suppressed, could generate tensions and instability. [R, abr.]
65.7528 AKPINAR, Pinar —
This paper investigates to what extent mediation has been a relevant foreign policy tool during the Arab Spring by looking into the mediation attempts of Turkey, Qatar and Iran. It examines why and how these actors mediated, to what extent they were able to apply mediation as a tool of foreign policy, whether their mediation attempts could deliver any results and whether there was a receptive audience with respect to their mediation. Despite certain setbacks, mediation has been a relevant foreign policy tool during the Arab Spring. The uses of mediation by these actors run parallel to their foreign policy priorities. In addition, during the Arab Spring, mediation has proved more effective in small-scale conflicts, such as hostage crises, rather than large-scale ones, such as those between regimes and oppositions. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Turkey, the Arab Spring and beyond”, edited and introduced by Bülent ARAS and E. Fuat KEYMAN. See also Abstr. 65.6656, 7318, 7436, 7472a, 7520]
65.7529 AVDEENKO, Alexandra; GILLIGAN, Michael J. —
Increasingly, the international community attempts to improve local public infrastructure in developing countries by creating more participatory local governance and social capital. We report on a randomized field experiment conducted in 24 communities (16 treated and 8 control) in rural Sudan. We offer a clearer theoretical statement of how these programs might alter the political landscape of the recipient villages. We measure norms using lab-in-the-field techniques and we measure network density with a survey of our 475 lab subjects. We appraise the participatory character of local governance and civic participation with a survey of 576 households. The program did not affect either networks or norms, but civic participation and the participatory nature of local governance increased. Thus we attribute the increase in citizen participation to more open local governing institutions. [R]
65.7530 BARACSKAY, Daniel —
Of the two major Palestinian factions, Hamas has demonstrated that it is more radical and willing to use acts of terrorism than Fatah. While some arguments have made the case that Hamas has become more moderate in light of efforts to develop stable institutions of government and societal organizations, there has not been conclusive evidence of this ideological shift. In fact, the continued adherence to the Muqawama (resistance) Doctrine represents a decisive facet of the movement's enduring pledge to nullify the state of Israel through a prolonged war of attrition. This article examines the role of political pragmatism in the evolution of Hamas. [R, abr.]
65.7531 BAUER, Michael —
Since 2011, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco have seen different forms of political change. In Tunisia, the ouster of Ben Ali has yielded a thus-far promising new democratic political order. Egypt has seen its first elected president, M. Morsi, yet Morsi was toppled in 2013 by a military that reinstated its grip on power. Morocco held a constitutional referendum and early elections in 2011, and has exhibited a fair degree of stability since. [In] differing circumstances, the three countries have achieved a fragile stabilization of their respective political systems. The sustainability of this realignment will depend on the economic performance of the political leadership as well as the regional security environment. The trajectories of the three countries, however, will also be influenced by the EU and its foreign policy. [R, abr.]
65.7532 BEISSINGER, Mark R.; AMANEY, Jamal A.; MAZUR, Kevin —
This study explains why the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions mobilized different constituencies. Using original survey data, we establish that while participants in both revolutions prioritized economic concerns and corruption over civil and political freedoms, Tunisian revolutionaries were significantly younger and more diverse in class composition than the predominantly middle-aged and middle-class participants in the Egyptian Revolution. Tunisian revolutionaries were also less likely to be members of civil society associations and more likely to rely on the internet as their source of information during the revolution. We explain these differences by reference to disparate incumbent regime strategies for coping with similar structural pressures for state contraction and political reform, which created different patterns of societal grievance and opposition mobilizing structures in their wake. [R]
65.7533 BENRAAD, Myriam —
Can ISIS's expansion be contained? The group grew out of the marginalization of the Sunnis, who under S. Hussein monopolized power. Pushed to the margins of the Iraqi State, the community grew more radical and closer to the Salafi movement. Some Sunnis looked favorably on these “liberators” who promised to restore order in lands that the Shiite-controlled government had abandoned. But since acts of violence have increased and promises of social and economic reforms have been slow to materialize, Sunni opinion could turn against those that it previously welcomed with open arms. For that to happen, the Iraqi government would have to decide to arm the tribes, which it has always refused to do despite repeated promises. [R, abr.]
65.7534 BERGH, Sylvia I.; ROSSI-DORIA, Daniele —
This contribution focuses on the “Arab Spring” in Morocco and on the interactions between the mainly urban-based activists that made up the 20 February Movement (F20M), and the population in rural areas. Based on six weeks of fieldwork between November 2013 and March 2014, mostly in the areas in and near Marrakech, we find that while the urban F20M events stimulated and inspired protests in rural areas, in practice there were only sporadic contacts based on the activists’ personal feelings of belonging rather than their organizational membership. This is mainly due to discursive disconnects between the center and periphery. As for the outcomes, in particular the new constitution, many respondents believe that nothing has changed so far. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7535 BERNOUSSI, Zaynab el —
This article is a study on dignity and the politics of dignity in postcolonial Egypt, and focuses on the historicity and socio-economic background of two events: the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis during the rise of post-independence nationalism and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution during the Arab Spring. It reviews the importance of the concept of dignity in philosophy and the social sciences, specifically pertaining to the development and postcolonial need for dignity and recognition, which the author terms “dignition”. The central question here is how the conception of dignity has evolved between the two events and what the implications are for the consequent understanding of dignity. [R]
65.7536 BHUIYAN, Shahjahan H. —
This article contributes to our understanding of whether democratic governance can be achieved in post-revolution Egypt. It explores the status of three key pillars of democratic governance in the context of the January 2011 People's Revolution and subsequent political developments through August 2013: (1) inclusive participation, (2) responsive institutions, and (3) adherence to international practices and principles. Available evidence suggests that none of the democratic governance pillars has been realized so far as a result of political instability in Egypt. The article argues that the current political environment is not favorable to achieving democratic governance in Egypt. [R]
65.7537 BISCHOF, Daniel; FINK, Simon —
The Arab world shows a puzzling variation of political violence. The region's monarchies often remain quiet, while other autocracies witness major upheaval. Institutional explanations of this variation suggest that monarchical rule solves the ruler's credible commitment problems and prevents elite splits. This article argues that institutional explanations neglect the role of repression: increasing the scope of repression raises the costs of rebellion and deters rebels. However, the deterrence effect disappears if repression is used indiscriminately. If remaining peaceful offers no benefits, repression creates new rebels instead of deterring them. A time-series-cross-section analysis of repression and political violence in the Middle East and North Africa corroborates our argument and shows the u-curve relation between repression and violence. Once we control for repression, monarchies have no special effect anymore. [R, abr.]
65.7538 BOONE, Catherine; NYEME, Lydia —
Existing work on land politics in Africa suggests that governments, by creating and upholding neo-customary land-tenure regimes, create powerful incentives for individuals to embrace state-recognized ethnic identities. This article strengthens the argument about the institutional determinants of ethnicity's high political salience through the use of contrasting evidence from Tanzania. In Tanzania, non-neo-customary land-tenure institutions prevail, and the political salience of ethnic identity is low. Even in a hardtest region of high in-migration and high competition for farmland, the political salience of ethnic identity in land politics is low. The findings suggest that political science needs to take seriously the role of state institutions in producing politically-salient ethnic identities in Africa. [R]
65.7539 BRUFFAERTS, Lauren —
[Although] civil society has raised attention to the cloudy issue of state-perpetrated diamond-related human rights abuses throughout the past decade, the continued longevity of the central definition around which the Kimberley Process revolves still appears to be a crystal-clear fact. Calls to broaden the scope of the conflict diamond definition have not been successful because several discourse manipulations within the KP have had formative effects on other actors’ identities and interests. By claiming that addressing human rights abuses lies beyond the mandate of the KP, several KP participant states have sought to convince others that discussing redefinition has no place on the KP reform agenda. [R, abr.]
65.7540 BURG, Steven L. —
T.R. Gurr explains group mobilization in terms of the joint effects of shared identity, economic and status grievances, and the actions of political entrepreneurs. This article examines the relative effects of identity, material grievances, and estimates of the consequences of independence on two key indicators of support for independence in Catalonia: declared preferences for independence and intentions to vote for independence in a future referendum. We examine the impact of political entrepreneurs by analyzing the vote for independence-oriented parties in the 2012 Catalan election. Our findings suggest mobilization is more a product of strong Catalan identity than of grievance, and that mitigation of Catalan demands will therefore require increasing the recognition and status of Catalonia in the Spanish state. [R]
65.7541 BUTENSCHØN, Nils A. —
This article [examines] the Arab uprisings of 2010–2011 as expressions of an unfolding crisis in the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in the region within a historic-sociological approach to citizenship as a “contractual relationship”. A brief discussion of Egyptian developments is used to illustrate the approach. The mass mobilization in the 1950s and 1960s inspired by Nasserism and the “authoritarian bargaining” introduced at the time is contrasted with the demands for a new social contract that mobilized millions during the recent uprisings. The uprisings clearly represent a critical juncture in contemporary Arab history, but their long-term impact on the direction of the future political order in the Arab region remains an open question. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7171]
65.7542 CARSWELL, Grace; De NEVE, Geert —
This article examines contemporary Dalit assertion in India through an ethnographic case study of a legal tool being mobilized by Tamil Nadu's lowest-ranking Arunthathiyars in their struggle against caste-based offences. The Arunthathiyars of western Tamil Nadu are increasingly taking recourse to the 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA Act) in an attempt to bring members of higher castes to justice. The article explores how Arunthathiyars are employing the law and how their litigation is reshaping the politics of caste in this region. [R, abr.]
65.7543 CAVATORTA, Francesco; DESROSIERS, Marie-Eve —
In some ways, the Maghreb has avoided the nightmare of civil war and internal strife witnessed by most of its Arab post-revolutionary counterparts. Both Algeria and Morocco experienced a significant level of social mobilization after the Arab Spring, but the persistence of pre-Spring institutions suggests the existence of complex state-society relations that go beyond the simplistic dichotomy of a society striving for freedom pitted against a stubborn authoritarian state. In Tunisia, militant Salafi trends have appeared, but they have had the cathartic effect of forcing Tunisians to contend with this type of radicalism. Behind this apparent “instability” for Tunisia and “stability” for Morocco and Algeria, hidden underlying processes are taking place, revealing a rather active civil society in both Morocco and Algeria, and the strengthening of the Tunisian democratic transition. [R, abr.]
65.7544 CEBOTARI, Victor —
This article focuses on the determinants of national pride in relation to ethnic diversity. Using pooled cross-sectional data from the World/European Values Survey, a multilevel analysis method is applied to examine the impact of discrimination, poverty, and self-perceived social status on the feelings of national pride of individuals who belong to ethnic and immigrant minorities in Europe. Results show that, while national pride is generally low among minorities, it peaks when individuals who are members of ethnic and immigrant minorities are poor and when they themselves adopt discriminatory attitudes. These findings imply that the context of discrimination and poverty, when combined with the status of the ethnic and immigrant group in the country, serve as important mediating factors for the way minorities choose to identify with the nation. [R]
65.7545 CESSOU, Sabine —
For years, the Islamic sect Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria. Lately, it has begun committing acts of violence in Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Hundreds of people have been victims of suicide attacks, massacres and kidnappings despite efforts to repress these acts by the Nigerian army, which has begun receiving military aid from several neighboring countries. But can the organization, which recently joined the Islamic State and proclaimed that the lands it occupies were a caliphate, be defeated by armed force alone? To defeat Boko Haram requires [reducing] the enormous number of poverty-stricken young people from northern Nigeria that growth and progress have left by the wayside. Will General M. Buhari, the country's new and highly martial president, be able to offer hope to these millions of desperate people? [R, abr.]
65.7546 CHARENTENAY, Pierre de —
Since the death of H. Chavez, Venezuela is going through a new crisis, economic as well as social. Where can change come from? Should one count on a victory of the opposition in the coming parliamentary elections, in 2015? Or can one expect the regime to open up due to popular movements and international pressure? [R, transl.]
65.7547 CHESKIN, Ammon; MARCH, Luke —
Much analysis of Russian state-society relations focuses on public, active forms of contention such as the “opposition” and protest movements. There is need for a more holistic perspective which adds study of a range of overt, “co-opted”, and hidden forms of interaction to this focus on public contention. A theoretical and empirical basis for understanding state-society relations in today's Russia involves broadening the concept of “contentious politics” to include models of “consentful” as well as “dissentful” contention. A diffused model of contentious politics can situate claim-making along the axes of consentful and dissentful motivations, and compliant and contentious behaviors. [R] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “State-society relations in contemporary Russia: new forms of political and social contention”. See Abstr. 65.1204, 1205, 1206, 1207, 1208, 1209 6675, 6856, 6927, 7137, 7213]
65.7548 CHIZEA, Bona; OSUMAH, Oarhe —
Nigeria faces serious new security threats. In the south and the northeast, respectively, there are insurgencies led by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, among others, as well as Boko Haram. These insurgencies are related to a complex set of insecurities in Nigeria: poverty, income inequality, corruption, crime, and youth militias. The Nigerian state thus far has not been able to address these security issues effectively. This article examines the potential of traditional rulership in Nigeria to contribute positively to the struggle against insecurity and its consequences. It finds that there may be promise in the institutions of traditional rule. Yet, because traditional rulers have been often co-opted by the state, they have lost much of the legitimacy it needs to fulfill that potential. [R]
65.7549 CIERCO, Teresa; TAVARES DA SILVA, Jorge —
This article aims at assess the geopolitical vectors that characterize the Portuguese Sea, and how Portuguese interests could be damaged by the creation of an “European Sea”. This implies that it needs to share resources and space. The sea is one of the greatest Portuguese assets and Portugal is trying to extend its continental platform. In this context it should strengths its foreign network and tries to benefit from its Atlantic vocation and establish itself as a leader of the Lusophone world. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7245]
65.7550 CONRADT, David P. —
This article examines the Civic Culture paradigm [over] the past 50 years with particular focus on Germany. We first discuss the impact of the research and its core findings. Second, we focus on the issue of “inner unity”. Third, we present data on the development of unified Germany's political culture since the 1990 unification. We examine the influence over time of the major explanatory variables that have been central to post-unification culture research: socialization or the effect of the socialist past, the contrasting economic experiences of both regions during the early decades of their democratic existence and the role of identity politics in shaping each region's view of each other. Finally, it contends that despite the cultural differences, there is a consensus on the institutions, processes and values of political democracy in the unified Republic. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.6592]
65.7551 DIAN, Matteo —
This article applies an interpretive approach to account for the process of definition and contestation over wartime memory in Japan. It first locates the role of memory in interpretive theory, emphasizing how beliefs about the past are a crucial component of foreign policy traditions. Second, it highlights how the process of contestation over a country's memory is fundamentally intertwined with attempts to legitimize or resist key foreign policy decisions in response to contemporaneous dilemmas that force a confrontation with historical traditions. This is illustrated through an analysis of the Yoshida Doctrine's problematic compromise between conservative and progressive traditions of thought about Japan's role in the Second World War, [between 1945 and] 1989. Finally, it studies the “normalization” of Japanese foreign policy during the post-Cold War Heisei period. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.6290]
65.7552 DURÁN, Rafael —
This paper examines media discourse regarding the humanitarian crisis that took place in Lampedusa and by extension in the European Union during the first semester of 2011 as a result of the Arab Spring. Instability in North Africa became the source of outflows towards neighboring countries. The empirical analysis encompasses both frame and critical discourse analysis. The questions are (1) whether the most read newspapers in Spain (Abc, El Mundo, El País, El Periódico, and La Vanguardia) framed people coming to Europe as asylum-seekers/refugees (victim-frame) or as immigrants (intruder-frame, i.e. conflict-frame), (2) whether the five of them did it in the same way, and c) whether frameshifts took place over the four-periods time. [R]
65.7553 ELBASANI, Arolda —
This article analyzes how the Muslim majority has engaged with, and contributed to parallel processes of democratization and European integration in post-Communist Albania. The assessment of Muslims’ choice focuses on the central organization, the Albanian Muslim Community, recognized by the state as the only authority in charge of all the administrative and spiritual issues pertinent to the community of Sunni believers, and serves as the main hub of respective religious activities in the country. We argue that the existence of a useful pool of arguments from the past, the so-called Albanian tradition, has enabled Muslims to contravene controversial foreign influences and recast Islam in line with the democratic and European ideals of the Albanian post-communist polity. [R, abr.]
65.7554 ERDENIR, F. H. Burak —
This article analyzes the challenging Europeanization of Turkey through its EU accession process. Europeanization stands for the political, legal/institutional and societal transformation a candidate country is going through during the course of accession by adopting EU policies, structures and practices. The article examines the internal and external factors dominating Turkey's legal/institutional Europeanization and societal Europeanization. Accordingly, domestic change in Turkey, the conditionality of the EU in this process, diffuse of European values and norms through the transformation are discussed. The Turkish case indicates that the legal/institutional Europeanization effective in the 1999–2005 period has been impaired after the opening of the negotiations by the declining conditionality and credibility of the EU, while societal Europeanization has been weak as the diffuse of European values and norms to the society has been limited. [R]
65.7555 FARHA, Mark; MOUSA, Salma —
With the specter of post-Spring Islamist rule looming, Christians in Syria and Egypt were forced to choose between quasi-secular autocracy and sectarian populism. The status quo ante under B. al-Assad and H. Mubarak, though democratically deficient, temporarily contained civil hostilities and afforded Christians with a modicum of secular protection and even prosperity, the degree of which sheds light on the relative absence of Syrian Christian protestors and the salient Coptic presence during the Egyptian revolution. This article explores how socio-economic and religious peripheral designations intersected with state policy to determine political (in) action amongst Christian minorities in two crucial countries of the region. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7556 FAZAL, Tanisha M.; GREENE, Brooke C. —
Recent scholarship has found identity variables to be insignificant predictors of civilian targeting in war. Drawing on the European origins of the law of war, this article argues that previous scholarship has neglected the one specification of “identity” that is most theoretically justified for understanding civilian targeting: whether a European state is fighting a non-European state. This article replicates and extends three recent statistical analyses — Downes; Valentino, Huth and Croco; and Morrow — of civilian targeting by including a variable capturing whether a European state fought a non-European state. The study finds that civilian targeting, and non-compliance with the law of war more generally, is significantly more likely in European v. non-European dyads than in other types of dyads. [R]
65.7557 FEMIA, Francesco; STERNBERG, Troy; WERRELL, Caitlin E. —
We examine the role of climate change and climate hazards, their attendant impacts on water and food security in the Arab world, and the inability or unwillingness of governments to cope with these forces in the years leading up to, and during, the Arab uprisings. In one case study, we investigate how long-term drought in Syria, large-scale human displacement, and the lack of an effective government response, may have contributed to social and political unrest in Syria, fueling a conflict with significant national, regional and international security dimensions. In a second case study, we explore the phenomenon of hazard globalization, whereby climate hazards have serious implications for food and water security far from the event epicenter. Specifically, we examine how drought in China and Russia may have influenced the rebellion in Egypt. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7274]
65.7558 FERNÁNDEZ-MOLINA, Irene —
The emergence and empowerment of Sahrawi civil protests and pro-independence activism inside the Western Sahara territory under Moroccan occupation have to be seen in the context of varying sets of opportunity structures which this peripheral movement has actively seized in the past two decades by symbiotically combining domestic non-violent resistance and international “diplomatic” activities. Different forms of recognition received from the two reference centers — the Moroccan state and the Polisario Front — plus the international community have been crucial in this process, with the last representing the most significant achievement of the movement. The Arab Spring has been a particularly fruitful window of opportunity in this regard. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7559 FINK, Simon —
The article analyzes how the setting of EU simulations influences negotiation outcomes, i.e., the content of the simulated directives. We have played the same simulation of the chocolate directive — the same roles and the same Commission proposal — in various settings (with different kinds of participants, various group sizes, for one or two days, with instructors or participants playing the EP). A quantitative analysis elucidates relations between settings and outcomes we would not see when considering only one simulation at a time. First, the simulation scales well. Simulation duration, number and kind of participants have little impact on the range of outcomes. Second, the directive is more liberal if participants play the EP, indicating that our instructors play the EP too tough. Third, Swiss participants negotiate stricter and more consensual directives. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7569]
65.7560 FLANIGAN, Shawn Teresa; O'BRIEN, Cheryl —
Using data from more than 1,000 low to moderate income individuals in Palestine, this study [examines] if and how receiving services from a specific organization engenders loyalty to the organization, passive acceptance and/or favorable approval of the organizations’ violent activities, and the likelihood of participation in the organization's violent activities. It explores if and how provision of aid and “governance” services by armed non-state actors is correlated with various aspects of individuals’ experiences of conflict, such as their opinions about the use of violence and various strategies for attaining peace, their fellow community members’ likelihood to join armed groups and engage in fighting, and their preferences regarding state structure and legal system. [R, abr.]
65.7561 FORTIER, Edwige A. —
Transitions to democracy nourish expectations for an expansion of space for political liberalization, redistribution and recognition. From 2011 to 2013, the landscape for civil society in Tunisia widened with the establishment of several thousand associations. However, during this period vulnerable groups, including sexual minorities, perceived and experienced increased degrees of marginalization. This article analyzes the “potentialities” and “boundaries” for members of homosexual communities in Tunisia as they maneuver through a post-revolution transition characterized by rapid expansions and contractions of the public sphere. It highlights the competing priorities within the public sphere. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7562 GAMBAROTTO, Francesca; SOLARI, Stefano —
The institutional configuration chosen by Europe to aggregate the many varieties of capitalism not only reduced the political autonomy of the single states, but effectively hindered the specific coordination mechanism of Southern European (SE) capitalism which was importantly based on state intervention as a structural element and on inflationary policies. Despite the deep market-oriented reforms this change caused both structural and macroeconomic unbalances. The paper integrates some principles of the Variety of Capitalism and the dynamics of institutional change with some insights inspired by the work of Arrighi to supply a synthetic and “alternative” perspective on the difficult role that Southern countries are experiencing in Europe. [R, abr.]
65.7563 GAUCHET, Marcel —
It seems unthinkable that religion could be the only motivation behind actions such as the attack in Paris in January 2015. There must be some more powerful, more solid motives. Religion is an alibi at most, a surface rationalization of other, determining motives, which can only be of socioeconomic character. These include poverty, marginality, exclusion, but also fanaticism, mental disturbance, personality disruptions, and social hardship. Westerners have such a hard time understanding religion's ability to mobilize people partly due to the fact that they have long ago “exited” religion themselves. In order for Westerners to understand the power of religion, they need come out of the ethnocentric circle and go back to the essentials of the religious phenomenon, from which Europeans have already freed themselves.
65.7564 GAUTIER, Gérard —
The perspective of a political Kurdistan — as a historical and geographical heritage — is more and more mentioned. Since the two concerned actors (the Kurds and the states that exercise their sovereignty over the territories which the former inhabit) are asymmetrically linked to each other, we first consider the states’ policies, [then] the Kurds’ strategies. The issue of territorial administration constitutes a central point for Kurdish nationalists in their fight for the recognition of their national rights (here with a focus on Turkey and Iraq). Since the 1990s and 2000s, the Kurdish national movement's dynamic has been progressively unified, with the emergence of the Kurdish presence zone (the “anthropological Kurdistan”) as an entity to be globally considered. [R]
65.7565 GESLIN, Laurent; DÉRENS, Jean-Arnault —
While Albania has a population of just under 3 million, some 2.5 million ethnic Albanians live in neighboring countries: in Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The goal of creating a Greater Albania, through a merger with Kosovo and exchanges of land with other Balkan countries, was long put on hold because the Albanian nation would in the end be reunited within the EU. But this prospect now seems to have faded. Faced with a serious economic crisis, the EU has closed the door to any new countries for the coming years. With entry into Europe now blocked, the Albanians might well resume their claims for national unity and demand that borders be redrawn. In this region, such a move would be akin to opening Pandora's box. [R, abr.]
65.7566 GÖLER, Daniel —
Based n approaches of civilian and normative power, the article elaborates on a particular problem exposed by the current Ukrainian crisis that has largely been neglected in the literature. A foreign policy aiming at the establishment of values, norms and rules might lead to changes in the international system, which could be perceived by other actors as a geostrategic threat. And, in turn, this perception might lead them to actions inspired by strategies of traditional power politics. In other words: Europe's success as a normative power may turn into a geostrategic challenge. Considering this challenge is of relevance not just for academic debates, but also for the further development of EU's foreign and security policy. [R] [First of a series of articles on “War and peace in Europe”. See also Abstr. 65.7453, 7463]
65.7567 GÓMEZ BRUERA, Hernán F. —
Drawing on a number of comparisons with Brazil and other BRICS countries, this paper shows how Mexico has failed to use its existing resources to become more influential in multilateral institutions, particularly within the UN. It argues that not only Mexican diplomats but also the economic and political elites in the country have been reluctant for the country to act as an emerging power on the world stage. Unlike Brazil, with its strong international identity, Mexico is conditioned by its proximity to and economic dependence on the US. It has failed to position itself as a bridge between the South and the North and it has lacked a coherent long-term foreign policy. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7478]
65.7568 GONÇALVES BERNARDES, Bruno —
During four decades, Venezuela had a bipolar and rotating political system. Based upon years of corruption, partitocracy and had economic performance, the punto fijo became a bipolar system between two strongly organized parties. The election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 broke this system by establishing the new 21st c. socialism Bolivarian Constitution. The death of Chavez and the latest political confrontations show that Venezuela is living in a new way of political bipolarization. This article aim is to define and explain this new bipolarized system by taking into account the dichotomy between the government and the opposition, as well as the political context after the death of Chavez. [R]
65.7569 GUASTI, Petra; MUNO, Wolfgang; NIEMANN, Arne —
We discuss several aspects of EU simulations. First, we briefly review the importance of the EU in current European politics, and its growing complexity, which represents a challenge for teaching and studying European integration. Second, we indicate that simulations address new didactical demands that arose in the context of the Bologna Process and the so-called “shift from teaching to learning”. And third, we move beyond the debate of EU simulations as merely an active learning tool, and discuss the (underestimated) role they may play as quasi-experiments, which may constitute a valuable resource both for didactical and European integration research. Together, these three aspects make EU simulations a promising multi-dimensional tool. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a series of articles of the same title, edited by the author. See Abstr. 65.7559, 7573, 7601, 7607, 7624]
65.7570 HAUGE, Wenche; DOUCET, Rachelle; GILLES, Alain —
The article explores how the structures and traditions of Haitian local communities react and respond to the needs of the communities and to the disputes that arise within them. It explores the causes of local conflicts and their relationship with the larger conflict picture in Haiti, and furthermore investigates the challenges faced by local models of conflict-prevention and how these are affected by national policies as well as by the presence of foreign actors in the country. The analysis is based on a survey and on fieldwork carried out in different regions of Haiti during the period 2007–2013. [R, abr.]
65.7571 HOFFMANN, Bert —
In order to sustain their rule, authoritarian regimes not only rely on mechanisms of repression and co-optation, but also develop strategies of legitimization. These include seeking “legitimization from abroad” — that is, validation through activities on, or by way of reference to, the international stage. This article analyzes these strategies in an empirical case study of Cuba. Bringing back in Max Weber's classic “pure types of legitimate authority”, which distinguish between regimes precisely on the basis of their claims to legitimacy, the study highlights the change from charismatic rule under Fidel Castro to an authoritarian brand of rational-legal authority under his brother Raúl. The expansive international legitimization strategy that once characterized Fidel's charismatic tenure has given way to a merely defensive form of international legitimization under the present bureaucratic socialist regime. [R, abr.]
65.7572 JOHNSON, Juliet; BARNES, Andrew —
V. Orbán and his center-right Fidesz party won Hungary's April 2010 parliamentary elections in a landslide, running on a nationalist-populist platform of economic self-rule. This paper explores Hungary's financial nationalist turn and its surprisingly successful resistance to IMF and EU pressures to change course. We theorize financial nationalism, and then trace its ideational roots and contemporary character in Hungary. We subsequently argue that two international factors ironically enabled Orbán to take his financial nationalist ideas from theory to practice: (1) IMF and EU policies that first contributed to Fidesz's electoral victory and then made it difficult to counter Orbán once in power; and (2) the tolerant behavior of international bond markets. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7276]
65.7573 JONES, Rebecca; BURSENS, Peter —
Simulations have become popular teaching tools in political science and EU studies curricula. Proponents point out that simulations match with constructivist theories of learning. They argue that students will better understand EU decision making when they combine theoretical knowledge about negotiation theory with knowledge about how the EU works and with the experience of negotiating as if they were EU actors. This article validates the pedagogical claims by constructivists regarding simulations in two ways. It assesses the organization of EuroSim, a four day comprehensive simulation of EU decision-making organized by the Trans-Atlantic Consortium for EU Studies & Simulations (TACEUSS) as an active learning environment. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7569]
65.7574 KAMEL, Lorenzo; HUBER, Daniela —
This article calls for a decentering research agenda and serves as a reminder to look beyond the centers when seeking to understand attempted or accomplished processes of transformation. The Arab Spring is not a unitary whole but part of a variety of processes which differs in terms of space (diverse countries, diverse areas in countries), time (the Ghedim Izik protests in Western Sahara started in October 2010, while protests in the Rif are still ongoing), substance (demands for civil and political rights, equality rights, material claims, autonomy), strategies (from violence to apathy), involved actors (social movements, civil society organizations or individual actors) and outcomes (from regime repression to empowerment of peripheries). [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7575 KAZANCIGIL, Ali —
At the close of World War I, denial of the Armenian genocide became a central point in Turkey's official doctrine. Up to the mid-2000s, intellectuals have been denounced for having spoken about the genocide in public. However, there are signs that things are changing, both in government circles and in wider society. Eventually, Ankara will recognize the Ottoman Empire's responsibility in this genocide. [First of two articles on “Armenia-Turkey — a missed centennial”.
65.7576 KHALID, Maryam —
In much of the world, those who do not perform “mainstream” understandings of gender and sexuality find themselves on the “peripheries”: they are often located outside of institutionalized power, beyond state power structures and often lack the power of representation vis-à-vis those who wield discursive authority (e.g., the state and mainstream media). The power relations that underscore the production of knowledge and identities in this way are discursive, functioning to normalize and naturalize them. This article examines how some representations of gender and sexuality are privileged over others in both western and MENA mainstream discourses relating to the “Arab Spring”; how those whose voices have been underrepresented in the mainstream attempt to represent themselves; and how this impacts on the political activities of women and LGBT groups in the MENA. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7577 KIM Jiyoung —
This paper examines the questions of why and how foreign assistance was utilized successfully in South Korea but less so in Ghana, with a focus on the role of aid in the process of state-building and state transition in these two countries. As multiple policy-makers and scholars have noted, in 1957 South Korea and Ghana shared similar levels of GDP per capita, yet South Korea then achieved rapid economic development and democracy in one generation, while Ghana suffered from slow development and a general deterioration of the standard of living. I adopt a comparative historical research method to explain the divergent paths of these two countries, with a special focus on the impact of foreign assistance on state transitions. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.6382]
65.7578 KINNINMONT, Jane —
This article reviews the current state of analysis of the 2011 Arab uprisings. It argues that valuable literature on the uprisings is emerging just at a time when the international policy agenda has moved away from 2011's flirtation with visions of a democratic Middle East. This literature presents a timely reminder that the uprisings were part of long-term processes of political change, rather than isolated phenomena. Understanding the very different post-uprising trajectories of different Arab countries requires comparative analysis of the political economy, state institutions, the role of the security sector and strategies of opposition movements, among other factors. Compared to 2011, the perceived costs of political change are higher today, while the gains remain uncertain. But the drivers of unrest remain unresolved. [R, abr.]
65.7579 KORNAI, János —
The great achievements of Hungary's 1989–90 transition — including democracy, rule of law, market-oriented reform, and pluralism in intellectual life — are being dismantled as the world looks the other way. [R]
65.7580 KUISZ, Jaroslaw —
In 1980–1981, legal scholars began to ask about the legal nature of the Gdansk Agreement concluded between workers’ representatives and the communist authorities. Interestingly, the exchange of opinions abounded in absolutely innovative theoretical proposals. It was argued for instance that the agreements did not go beyond the existing legal order of the Polish People's Republic. And then scholars wondered whether one could classify the agreements as an act of purely political, or also of legal character. There was even an audacious proposal that such innovative bilateral agreements could permanently become part of the political and legal system of the Polish People's Republic. In the background, however, there was probably the most serious political and legal question: whether in the Summer of 1980 a lawful revolution took place. [R, abr.]
65.7581 LEE Seung-Ook —
The so-called Sunshine Policy launched by the liberal regime of South Korea brought about a significant transformation in its visions of North Korea. Through it, North Korea became an “object of development”. This was something different from the previous idea of North Korea as a politico-military target. However, to conservatives, North Korea remains within the politico-military realm as an object of territorial and ideological absorption. As a result, political conflicts in South Korea in the conception of North Korea — between a geo-economic object and an object of geo-political absorption — entail competitive appropriation of the discourse of “China's colonization of North Korea” and affect the way North Korean territory is produced. [R]
65.7582 LEECH, Philip —
The Palestinian Authority's (PA) claim to embody the spirit of the “Arab Spring”, through its recent “state-building” agenda — including its elevation to “non-member observer status” at the UN — is disingenuous. This conclusion rests on three key arguments: (1) this article identifies a continuation of broader patterns of authoritarianism represented by the PA's lack of adherence to democratic practices, the deprivation of access for the Palestinian population to basic resources and the wider issue of the continued absence of Palestinian sovereignty. (2) It identifies the intensification of some authoritarian practices within Palestine, particularly in the areas of security and policing. (3) It identifies that civil-society groups and opposition supporters throughout 2011–2012 have more genuinely embodied evidence of resistance to authoritarianism in popular demonstrations against the PA. [R, abr.]
65.7583 MAGHRAOUI, Abdelslam —
The sudden collapse of a handful of Arab regimes during the Arab Spring has ignited the debate about authoritarian endurance in the Middle East and North Africa region. While monarchies confront similar political, social and economic challenges as the republics, only republican regimes collapsed in the face of popular protests. This paper investigates what might explain this difference of outcome in the case of Morocco. It argues that previous explanations of authoritarian durability have neglected the political experience that regimes muster during decades of political turbulence or instability. Authoritarian regimes that seem strong and stable may be less resilient than shaky but tested regimes. [R]
65.7584 MAHANTY, Sango; DANG Trung Dinh —
Maintaining a livable environment in Vietnam's polluted craft villages is a daily challenge for state authorities and residents. Neighboring urban populations demand that the state effectively curtails and manages pollution, while local residents prioritize their livelihoods and routinely flout regulations. The commune official, tasked with the seemingly impossible task of environmental regulation, occupies a fraught position, torn between the imperatives and constraints of craft producers and state regulatory demands. This study of water pollution in northern Vietnam's craft villages finds that commune officials’ conflicted role in environmental governance is a central factor in the failure of the current environmental governance regime, and reflects the internally conflicted nature of the Vietnamese state. [R]
65.7585 MAHER, David —
Civil war acutely inhibits economic growth, according to prominent civil war literature. However, recent scholarship observes that FDI, considered a central vehicle of growth, is entering countries with internal armed conflicts unabated. Furthermore, some civil war economies exhibit substantial increases in FDI during conflict. According to this scholarship, FDI enters conflict zones despite violence. This article contrastingly adopts a critical framework acknowledging the often violent characteristics of globalized capitalism. By analyzing Colombia's oil industry (the country's largest sector of FDI), this article suggests that civil war violence can create conditions that facilitate FDI inflows. It posits that violence perpetrated by armed groups sympathetic to the interests of the oil industry — namely, the public armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries — has facilitated FDI in Colombia's oil sector. [R, abr.]
65.7586 MARIAN, Michel —
The 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide will not mark a great historical moment in Armenian-Turkish relations. The two countries are standing firm on their positions. Armenia is trying to extend the list of countries that recognize the genocide and has made some significant progress — the declarations made by the Pope, for example — but is still coming up against strong resistance. Turkey's stance of denial has hardly changed. The Armenian diaspora might be able to help redefine the lines. [R] [See also Abstr. 65.7575]
65.7587 MEZOUAGHI, Mihoud —
When President Bouteflika came to power in 1999, he sought to liberalize the country's economy. But these reforms were reversed after only a few years. The rise in the price of hydrocarbons meant increased investment in infrastructure, but such large projects have above all benefitted foreign companies who have not brought productive investment to Algeria. The drop in hydrocarbon prices is causing fears of a major crisis, which could have political repercussions. [R] [First of a series of articles on “Is Algeria a new regional power?”, introduced by Mansouria LOKHEFI, pp. 10–16. See also Abstr. 65.7386, 7461, 7477]
65.7588 MINZNER, Carl —
The post-post-Mao era has now begun. The reforms that brought economic growth and greater openness to China are being unwound, while an assertive new leader strikes off in a populist and nationalist direction. [R]
65.7589 MISHALI-RAM, Meirav —
65.7590 MØLLER, Jørgen —
Europe in the Middle Ages was hardly democratic, but it did have law-based institutions that could and did stay the hands of kings, laying a crucial basis for future state-building and democracy-building alike. [R] [See also Abstr. 65.6372]
65.7591 MOORE, Cerwyn —
This article examines foreign fighters and the insurgency in the North Caucasus. It first addresses conceptual issues concerning the ways that foreign fighters are analyzed, posing this more widely in terms of transnational activism. Here I examine the importance of kin and relatedness. I [then] develop this argument, examining pan-Islamism and transnational activism in the post-Soviet period. The third section draws attention to the different groups of foreign fighters, as part of a wider activist movement in the North Caucasus. Here I show that a complex group of transnational activists from the Greater Middle East, North Africa, parts of Europe, and Central Asia participated in the conflicts in the North Caucasus. Finally, the article examines volunteers from the North Caucasus who traveled to fight in Syria. [R, abr.]
65.7592 NAXIDOU, Eleonora —
This article examines the issue of overlapping national histories in the Balkan setting. It shows how this phenomenon was applied in the construction of master narratives, which was a multifaceted process of nationalizing the past. It also discusses the multiple nature of the past in order to provide a contribution to the theoretical study of nationalism and ethnic politics. Focusing on the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks in the 19th c., it demonstrates how the common ecclesiastical legacy of the Orthodox community in the Ottoman Empire was perceived by two national activists, Grigor Parlichev and Margaritis Dimitsas, who, for totally different reasons, propagated the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. [R, abr.]
65.7593 O'BRIEN, Thomas —
The removal of Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia signaled the start of the Arab Spring. The abrupt nature of the regime-change raises questions about why it happened in the way it did. This article examines the contextual factors that precipitated the regime-change through the lens of political security. The aim is to examine how political insecurity in society led to the emergence of opposition sufficiently organized to unseat Ben Ali. The paper develops a framework to consider how the loss of legitimacy by the regime opened the space for opposition. Attempts to restrict opposition failed to address underlying claims, leaving the way open for the opposition to unite following the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi. [R]
65.7594 OMONKULOV, Otabek; BABA, Gürol —
This article examines to what extent conjunctural fluctuations in global and regional politics alter the influence and the power of a state. Primarily, it argues that such fluctuations create a surplus in power that alters a state's political clout. To explain this dynamic, the article introduces the concept of “conjunctural power” as an outcome of sudden regional and global developments, and which increases or decreases the weight/influence of the foreign policy of a state without affecting its real power position. The examination of the concept, in the case of Uzbekistan, proves that global and regional fluctuations generate “conjunctural power”, strengthening a particular state's influence and power position vis-à-vis regional and great powers. [R, abr.]
65.7595 ORE, Eitan —
This article examines perceptions of military and defense expenditure as held by Asian students. By using quantitative data from the Asian Student addresses the following questions: to which areas would Asian students like to see their government allocate more or less resources and, specifically, how supportive of defense and military spending are Asian students. This study finds that data concerning one country have appeared deviant. While designating the strongest will to increase defense and military spending among all countries sampled in the survey, Chinese students from leading universities (N = 800; Beijing and Renmin universities in Beijing; Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong university) also exhibit the lowest levels of perceived military threats. The paper explores the “puzzle” of Chinese students by generating and testing a null hypothesis. [R, abr.]
65.7596 OWOLABI, Olukunle P. —
This article explores the developmental consequences of forced settlement colonization, based on the large-scale import of African slaves and/or Asian indentured laborers into newly settled territories. Paradoxically, forced settlement resulted in superior levels of educational attainment and post-colonial democracy than European domination over indigenous populations (i.e., colonial occupation) among countries and territories decolonized after 1945. This relationship is robust to statistical controls for British rule, European settlement, socio-economic development, ethnicity, religious composition, and geography. Investigating the role of Protestant missionaries and colonial legal institutions as possible causal mechanisms linking forced settlement to surprisingly favorable developmental outcomes, I find that directly ruled colonies that universalized metropolitan legal rights prior to World War II have performed better than colonies that maintained distinct “native codes” for indigenous populations. [R]
65.7597 PEREIRA DA SILVA, Fabricio —
The theoretical discussion of democracy, more specifically the debates on participation and alternative theories of democracy and its institutions, is a promising way to understand the proposals of the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador “on its own terms”. It is an exercise, not so common in the majority literature that evaluates (usually negatively) these experiments, and is expected that the theories of participatory democracy can provide references more appropriately to address the conceptions of democracy that pervade these new governments and institutions. In this sense, some ideas and discussions on participation are reviewed in the article, outlining key ideas that underlie that production and looking between them highlight elements that have become central in discourses and institutional designs tested in these three Andean countries. [A]
65.7598 PHILLIPS, Andrew; SHARMAN, J. C. —
IR theories generally hold that increased interaction between units in an international system produces convergence in their forms through military competition, institutional emulation, or normative socialization. In contrast, we argue that diverse international systems can endure despite increasing interaction. The early modern Indian Ocean international system hosted a variety of statist, corporate, and imperial polities. Diversity endured for three reasons: (1) powerful foreign and local actors held differing maritime and land-oriented preferences for conquest, which created the potential for coexistence between unlike polities. (2) Congruent European and Asian ideas of heteronomy facilitated durable polity diversity. (3) Strategies of localization enhanced enmeshment. Convergence on common polity forms failed to occur despite the presence of a statist model during this period. Subsequently, a reconfigured form of diversity under colonial empires succeeded this order. [R, abr.]
65.7599 PORTNOV, Andrij —
In Dnepropetrovsk, Russian, Ukraine, Soviet, and Jewish layers of history overlap. The metropolis in South-Eastern Ukraine has so far managed to resist the war that Russia, with the help of armed groups in the Donbas, has unleashed. That has a lot to do with the work of billionaire I. Kolomoyskyi and the Private Group. Together with the regional authorities, they have seized on the traditional self-confidence of Dnepropetrovsk and offered a new form of local patriotism that is closely linked with political loyalty to Ukraine. Dnepropetrovsk is the first city to manifest a decidedly Ukrainian political nationalism. This nationalism is compatible with the Russian language and Russian or Jewish identity. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7414]
65.7600 PRADELLA, Lucia —
This article analyzes the re-emergence of the working poor phenomenon in Western Europe. Critically engaging with comparative welfare regimes literature on in-work poverty (IWP), it argues that an international political economy (IPE) perspective is key to understanding the economic and international dimensions of IWP. By focusing on three countries belonging to different welfare regimes — Britain, Germany and Ita — the article examines the relationship between production restructuring, IWP trends and the nature of work, with particular attention to working-hour dynamics. It argues that the increasing IWP observed in these countries since the outbreak of the global economic crisis is linked to long-term trends in the IPE and to the growth of new competitors, mainly from emerging countries. [R]
65.7601 RAISER, Simon; SCHNEIDER, Annegret; WARKALLA, Björn —
The authors reflect on the potential of simulation games for teaching the EU. They argue that when developing or using simulations it is imperative to decide, first, on the learning objective(s). They distinguish games geared primarily towards conveying knowledge from those aimed at training soft skills. The former can focus on teaching the processes and dynamics of European politics, on teaching factual knowledge about a given policy field or on teaching the Union's institutional aspects. The second category concerns objectives such as training teamwork, communication and negotiation skills, as well as empathy, the ability to deal with complexity and making decisions under stress. The relevance of these objectives for teaching and training students is assessed on the basis of case studies describing different simulation game concepts. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7569]
65.7602 RAM, Moriel —
The space of exception has been extensively discussed as a location in which governing technologies are deployed through the suspension and manipulation of the norm. The scholarship on the subject has underscored the ways in which various localities can be encamped, which alludes to the dynamic in which spaces of exception can be shaped through the application of various means of sovereign violence that produces new and unpredictable norms. Building on this literature, the article analyzes the ways in which the exception is intentionally used in order to spatially construct the norm. Two case studies are discussed: Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights and the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus. The article shows how the state of emergency, which provided the justification for deploying exceptional means — occupation and subsequent colonization — was domesticated. [R, abr.]
65.7603 REYNTJENS, Filip —
Rwanda under President P. Kagame has been hailed for its visionary leadership, economic progress, and reforms in education, health, and agriculture. Yet the regime's autocratic rule, human-rights abuses, persecution of the Hutu majority, and growing inequality point to an ominous future. [R]
65.7604 RICHARD, Élodie; VORMS, Charlotte, eds —
Editors’ introduction, pp. 3–12. Articles by Sophie BABY; François GODICHEAU; Élodie RICHARD; Eduardo GONZÁLEZ CALLEJA; Rubén PALLOL TROGUEROS; Stéphane MICHONNEAU; Gutmaro GÓMEZ BRAVO; Francisco SEVILLANO CALERO; Amélie NUQ; Céline VAZ; Claudio HERNÁNDEZ BURGOS; Jorge MARCO; Mercedes YUSTA RODRIGO; Feliciano MONTERO GARCÍA.
65.7605 ROUQUIÉ, Alain —
This paper discusses the relations between NAFTA and transformations on economics, society, politics, and Mexican policies. This agreement was not an isolated project not an unexpected shift, but the result of a program of structural reforms that turned the page on the Revolution's “national popular” model. The treaty continues and ensures the new liberal trend in the Mexican economy. Besides, the transition towards democracy did not suffer major setbacks. The continuity of Mexico's foreign defensive policies after 1994 and its international influence are also examined. [R]
65.7606 ROY, Indrajit —
The Subaltern Studies Collective inaugurated a departure point in Indian historiography and social sciences by demanding that attention be directed to subalterns as makers of their own destinies. Their scholarship raises three issues. The first of these relates to the empirical observation about subaltern resistance to elites. The second pertains to the analytical dichotomy between elite and subaltern modes of conducting politics. The third centers on the valorization of a putatively coherent fragment that seeks autonomy from the totality of the state. The fundamental problem with the perspective advanced by the subaltern studies scholars stems from their implicit assumption that utopian ideals centered on reclaiming dignity and asserting social equality are necessarily derivative of European Enlightenment ideals. [R]
65.7607 RÜNZ, Paul —
Model European Union (MEU) is a simulation of European politics that aims to familiarize young Europeans with the decision-making process of the EU. Participants simulate the cooperation between the Commission, the EP and the Council of the EU in the ordinary legislative procedure. About 190 people annually participate at MEU Strasbourg, which takes place [at] the EP. This article uses quasi-experimental panel data from surveys with participants of MEU 2012 to test the impact of the simulation conference. While most empirical research on the effects of political simulations addresses the educational effectiveness of classroom simulations, this article answers a research question with a new focus on political attitudes: Do EU simulations influence European identity and political support of the EU? [R] [See Abstr. 65.7569]
65.7608 RYAN, Michael C. —
At some point, V. Putin will go the way of his autocratic predecessors and, along with him, Putinism. Russia will once again find itself at a crossroads. At that moment, the longings inherent in every Russian to be both a great Slav and a modern European will visit internal turmoil on the troubled souls of a proud nation. This recurring Russian spring offers the world yet another opportunity to embrace the Russian people. The presence of Putin is a clear indication that our generation missed our previous opportunity. His inevitable departure will be our second chance to miss the same opportunity unless we start to see the world as Russians do and then communicate with them in ways that translate well into their perception of the world around them. [R]
65.7609 SALAMA, Pierre —
Brazil and China's growth trajectories within the last decades are compared. Analogies and differences between the two ascending countries are outlined in order to draw conclusions about divergences of their development models. The outstanding features are demography, inequality, the investment rate, monetary policies, internationalization, the balance of national accounts, investment in infrastructure, urbanization and violence rates. Finally, the causes of manifest economic slowdown are considered. The question arises: is the domestic market capable enough to boost growth? [R]
65.7610 SAOULI, Adham —
In January/February 2011, the world watched with admiration the Egyptian revolution that toppled President H. Mubarak. The demonstration in Midan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square in central Cairo), which was the nucleus of the revolution, highlighted a largely spontaneous, civil and peaceful political performance. However, this performance was temporary, contradicting subsequent bloody conflicts in post-revolutionary Egypt. This article examines the socio-political origins of the Midan performance. It argues that the demonstrators exercised collective restraint, which was temporary but necessary, in order to topple Mubarak. Building on N. Elias's civilizing process theory and social movements literature, it is argued that the origins of this performance are found in a collective knowledge of regime strategy and narrative, Egyptian socio-political values and existing repertoires of contention. [R, abr.]
65.7611 SCHEIPERS, Sibylle —
If the West wants to contain or rout the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, it will have to rely on local allies in some way. The history of modern war suggests three ways in which such cooperation has previously been problematic. [R]
65.7612 SCHUBERT, Jon —
Since the end of the Angolan conflict in 2002, the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) party has been promoting a “master narrative” of “peace and reconstruction”, through which the Angolan conflict is re-signified as a merely technical issue, and the question of “national reconciliation” is limited to the reconstruction of infrastructures. Conversely, post-war memory politics revisits the past only selectively. While the history of the independence struggle is revised and politicized, the post-independence Angolan conflict is notably absent from public discourse, as the MPLA's ambivalent role in contested events precludes the stabilization of the civil war as “patriotic history”. Departing from scholarship on memory politics in post-liberation regimes, this article analyzes the discursive strategies and performative acts employed in these processes. [R, abr.]
65.7613 SERRAFERO, Mario D. —
Under successively Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina has experienced economic and political changes, but the economic structure has remained the same.
65.7614 SLAYTON, Caleb —
The Sub-Saharan region is one general context where Islamist extremism is both vividly active and misunderstood. Africa's reaction to: Arabization; the adjustment to post-colonial rule; the perception of secular government institutions; the extent of cultural and religious pluralism; and the local character of Muslim leadership and institutions are all very different from that of the Middle East. Scores of terrorism analysts and even Arab populations only too familiar with the Middle East context superimpose Middle East threats over the Sub-Saharan African cultural landscape. Instead of generalizing the Islamist threats, it might be better to ask why it is that violent Islamist groups have traditionally been challenged to expand their influence in Muslim Sub-Saharan Africa. [R, abr.]
65.7615 SNYDER, Robert S. —
The Arab uprising that began in 2010 saw the fall of rulers in states that had republican governments, yet the monarchs in their states survived. This is ironic in light of the fact that many monarchs throughout history have been vulnerable to revolutions. What explains this discrepancy? Although the literature has emphasized the impact of petrodollars in preserving the rule of the monarchs, this article stresses ideological and institutional factors. Revolutionary nationalism, which fused the nation and state, left an institutional legacy that made it difficult for the republican states to change. On the contrary, in defining themselves in opposition to revolutionary nationalism, the monarchs provided for security and stability in making themselves somewhat immune to transnational revolutionary movements like the Arab uprising. [R, abr.]
65.7616 SOLOMON, Hussein —
The African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces are engaged in a fierce counter-insurgency campaign against Al Shabab terrorists. Regional and international players such as Ethiopia and the US support AMISOM. In northern Mali, French forces together with those of the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS] are involved in vicious battles with Islamists in the form of Ansar Dine, the Movement for Unity and Jihad and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. In northern Nigeria, security forces are engaged in bloody battles again the Islamist sect Boko Haram. In all three cases, success in a traditional realist sense is far from assured and traditional counter-terrorism measures are actually counter-productive, since it refuses to acknowledge the underlying complexity giving rise to radical Islamist movements. [R, abr.]
65.7617 STEINSDORFF, Silvia von —
Twenty-five years after the breakdown of communism, all Central-Eastern European parliaments are consolidated, highly functional constitutional institutions that play a key role in the respective political systems. Despite all national specifics developed over the years, comparative research still displays significant regional similarities, which can no longer be explained as merely transitional. In fact, the established form of institutional autonomy guarantees for functioning legislatures even in fragile political contexts, characterized among other problems by volatile and fragmented party systems. Compared to their Western European counterparts, usually dominated by strong and highly disciplined party groups, the Central-Eastern European parliaments rely more on powerful committees and other mechanisms of “rationalized inclusion”. These internal structures promote their institutional autonomy, even in case of unclear or drifting parliamentary majorities. [R]
65.7618 SUÁREZ COLLADO, Ángela —
This article analyzes the evolution of popular protest in the Rif within the Moroccan context of contention. It considers the specificity of the demands expressed and the strategies for mobilization adopted as a result of a long-term process of regional activism. The article finds that protesters in the Rif have had agency to conduct their own strategies, using the opportunity structure opened at state level to advance their own agenda. The pre-existing mobilizing structures and the reproduction of patterns of center-periphery tension in the course of the contention have fostered a progressive localization of protest in the region, which has strengthened regional identity and regionalist activism in the Rif. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7048]
65.7619 SULEIMANOV, Emil —
Jihadist groups often select for attack targets such as brothels and casinos, which Salafi ideology considers places of sin. However, they adjust to the expectations of the local population. In doing so, they seek to boost their standing and secure the solidarity of other Salafists. Wherever they cannot assume that fatal attacks on “sinful” (haram) targets will meet with acceptance, they put greater emphasis on “reeducation” than retribution. Weaker terrorist cells in particular avoid attacks where a massive response from security forces can be expected. Therefore, at their core, jihadist groups behave rationality, as the example of Dagestan shows. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7413]
65.7620 SUMMERS, Tim —
China's social and economic transformations, and their growing global impact, have prompted a plethora of books. This review article examines five recent books in Polity's “China Today” series as a basis for discussion about society and politics in China. These books look at consumption, social welfare, class, ethnicity, and the nature, role and performance of the Communist Party and state. They provide well-researched and balanced accounts of developments in China, especially since 1978. The article argues that important themes of the books — the growing discourse of consumption, the depoliticization of class as socioeconomic strata, the Party-state as a pragmatic provider of citizen services, and the role of the private sector in the provision of social welfare — are all features of the current phase of a globalized capitalist modernity. [R, abr.]
65.7621 TARDIS, Matthieu —
The EU has been trying to establish a common European asylum system for fifteen years. This project has been stalled by disagreements between states, each looking out for its own national interests. Europe is very ill-prepared for the kinds of situations brought about by instability in the southern Mediterranean, which is causing refugee movements that are considerable but not unprecedented. The EU's current systems appear poorly equipped to bring about necessary solidarity between member states. [R]
65.7622 TAŞDEMIR, Fatma —
Having become the most important problem on the agenda of international society, ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is the most concrete example of a structure which uses a sophisticated configuration jointly employing the strategy of insurgency and terror during an internal war. The strategy applied by ISIS can be seen as a modern strategy of insurgency and thus differentiates itself from earlier types of insurgency. It seems that this modern strategy will be used in the future by several actors as a weapon of the poor. [R, abr.]
65.7623 TERHALLE, Maximilian —
In [“Revolutionary power and socialization: Explaining the persistence of revolutionary zeal in Iran's foreign policy”, Security Studies 18(3), 2009: 559–589; Abstr. 60.2784], M. Terhalle asked “why states stay revolutionary so long” and applied it to Iran. The contributions to this symposium critically review the arguments made then in light of what is now widely believed to reflect substantial changes in Iran's foreign policy. Therefore, revisiting his propositions seem to be all the more timely as Tehran's change of attitude and the responses from its international negotiating partners are about to produce “The New Deal”. [R] [Introduction to a series of articles of the same title, edited by the author. See Abstr. 6420, 6496, 7394, 7402, 7441, 7499]
65.7624 USHERWOOD, Simon —
One of the most notable challenges of getting colleagues to try out simulations in European studies teaching is the overcoming of start-up costs. The article discusses these challenges and their origins in the fundamental assumptions that simulations make about both the world and pedagogy. In particular, the tension between the simple rules that are understood to capture real-world phenomena and the complexity that those rules produce creates not only an excellent learning opportunity but also a barrier to developing useful resources for simulation designers. The article offers a number of ways that such a barrier can be overcome, including the development of a simulation designer community, use of online guides and the creation of simulations that teach about simulation design. These ideas are illustrated with a number of practical examples. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.7569]
65.7625 VÉRON, Jean-Bernard —
Since gaining independence in 1960, Somalia has enjoyed only a few periods of stability. Wars with neighboring countries — Ethiopia in particular — have persisted, causing serious internal issues, especially since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. Four causes explain this chronic instability: the incapacity to create a string state, the battle for resources, the rise of radical Islam, and the high frequency of external interventions. [R]
65.7626 VOLPI, Frédéric —
The political trajectories of the countries of the Maghreb have been more or less modified by the events of the Arab uprisings depending on the forms of legitimacy used by the regimes to survive over time. Different articulations of political cooptation, repression and patron-clients relations have emerged over time and they have been reshaped by the recent protests movements and their fall-out, either marginally (Algeria), partially (Morocco) or fundamentally (Tunisia). [R]
65.7627 WALTHER, Olivier J.; CHRISTOPOULOS, Dimitris —
Using Social Network Analysis, this article illuminates the relationship between the Islamists and rebels involved in the Malian conflict. We use publicly available data to demonstrate that the connection between Islamists and rebels depends on brokers who defected from the Tuareg rebellion to radical groups. Our work also details the internal relationships within each of the subgroups. By using descriptive network-analysis, we show that both groups were affected by the accidental disappearance of one of the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb emirs, and the death of one of the architects of the Tuareg rebellion. Both events affected social cohesion. The article discusses the influence that the French-backed intervention may have on the evolution of the conflict, and how network-analysis could contribute to a better understanding of terrorist activities in the region. [R, abr.]
65.7628 WEBB, Adam K. —
The revolutions of the Arab Spring, in contrast to the liberal third wave of the 1970s to 1990s, rest on a more popular and traditionalist base. Critics often depict these currents as insular and even xenophobic in outlook. This article engages the literature on democratization, framing, and social movement globalization, and challenges that assumption. It draws on in-depth interviews conducted with Islamists and other activists in Cairo during April and May 2012. It argues that the pressures of globalization and the opportunities of democratic transition are forcing traditionalists onto more cosmopolitan terrain. These cosmopolitan traditionalist activists draw on inspiration from other parts of the world and express solidarity with revolutionary movements elsewhere. Unlike liberal cosmopolitans, however, they ground their mode of tolerance and cooperation on substantive traditional values. [R, abr.]
65.7629 WEISSERT, Carol S.; JONES, David Blake —
There is an inherent trade-off in federalism regarding representation and equity. With the devolution of responsibilities to regional governments offering increased representation, there comes the inequity of services provided by some governments and not others. However, citizens in these federations may want the best of both worlds — desiring regional control but without the regional policy variation. This tension, dubbed “the devolution paradox” in a study of federal countries in Europe, was less apparent in one key group of regions — those with historic ties through language, culture, or experience. This article examines US respondents to identify whether the devolution paradox is evident in this country and looks specifically at the South, a region with long-standing distinctiveness. [R, abr.]
65.7630 WHITEHEAD, Judith —
This article critically analyzes P. Chatterjee's recent concepts of civil society and political society, showing that their binary character is derived from a culturalist conflation of capitalism with modernity. In turn, modernity becomes equated with a naturalized liberal democratic state, precluding any appreciation of how resistance can and does shape the character of the state. Second, it compares Chatterjee's categories of civil and political society to those of Gramsci, arguing that a return to classical Gramscian categories, along with an appreciation of the impact of colonialism on state forms, can provide studies of resistance with a richer and more elegant understanding of social change from below in contemporary India. [R]
65.7631 WIHTOL DE WENDEN, Catherine —
The current crisis in the Mediterranean is a part of an unprecedented global migratory movement. The three areas of the Mediterranean, the Maghreb-Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East, each present particular characteristics of population displacement. But whether they are refugees — whose numbers are constantly increasing — or economic migrants, Europe's mechanisms for dealing with them remain essentially national and are failing to adapt to the demands of this new situation. [R]
65.7632 WILSON, Chris —
Identity-based conflict is now the rare exception rather than the rule in democratic Indonesia. Yet puzzlingly, despite the consolidation of democracy, ethnic clashes and mob violence against religious minorities continue to occur. While such events are now far smaller than those in the first years of democratization and occur only occasionally, their persistence requires analysis given the potential for escalation and what it tells us about Indonesia's reform process. I compare recent incidents with that of the initial post-authoritarian era, and find that identity-based collective violence persists because many important causes of conflict have not been removed by democratic consolidation. As found by numerous scholars, many illiberal characteristics of the authoritarian state have segued neatly into democratic Indonesia. I assert that this has left several main causes of group violence firmly in place. [R, abr.]
65.7633 WÖLFL, Adelheid —
A shootout which erupted between police forces and an armed group linked to the National Liberation Army in May 2015 in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo has yet again brought the small Balkan state into the center of international attention. But the clashes were just the peak of domestic political tensions which already emerged months before. The polarization between government and opposition had been growing for years and the stalemate in Macedonia has led to a more authoritarian, clientelist, [obscure] and nationalist political system. The EU Commission, representatives of the EP, representatives of the US and the leaders of the four main parties in Macedonia finally reached a deal on the 2015 which will lead to elections in April 2016. [R] [See Abstr. 65.6946]
65.7634 ZHURZHENKO, Tatiana —
East Ukrainian Kharkov was at the start of 2014 the scene of fierce clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groupings. Political polarization makes the city a preferred target for Russia's hybrid war. A look at the background to the tensions shows how important historical memory remains for the city's present-day self-image. Many conflicts in Kharkov revolve around competing views of history. They can be politically instrumentalized. Despite the local quality of the “war over memory”, the situation also reflects the tense relationship between the periphery and the center. In wars over memory, there are no winners. The decisive factor is not who maintains the upper hand over local or national historical memory, but how the country finds its way out of polarization and back to dialogue. [R] [See Abstr. 65.7414]
65.7635 ZUKOWSKI, Maciej —
This article [examines] the first ten years of EU membership (2004–2014) for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. These countries experienced very fast economic growth immediately after their EU accession. There followed a deep recession in 2008–2009 (with the exception of Poland) and then reasonable recovery. The societies share low trust in other people, which has caused low trust in politics. Still, the countries have made progress in democratic consolidation and their political stability has increased recently. Most people in the four countries support the EU, as well as the North Atlantic Alliance. This support rests to a large extent on historically motivated political arguments. Similarly, the states have alike political positions on Russia based on a long historical experience. [R, abr.]
65.7636
Articles by Costanza CALABRETTA; Vera Caroline SIMON; Eckhard JESSE; Jürgen DANYEL; Everhard HOLTMANN and Tobias KAECK; August PRADETTO.