Content Type: Journal Article / Publication Year: within 25 Years / Journal: / Topic: Government

701. The Children of Antifascism: Exploring Young Historians Clubs in the GDR

Author:: Catherine Plum
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: In 1982, a ninth grader named Anna from Eberswalde-Finow composed an essay in which she recounted one of the most influential moments in her life. One might have expected a description of a triumphant victory at a swim meet or gymnastics competition. Instead, Anna described a day four years earlier when she was formally inducted into a special club at her school. The initiation ceremony took place at an historical site laden with a disturbing legacy, the former concentration camp of Ravensbrück. Anna remembered the moment when she became a card-carrying member of the young military historians:
Topic:: Civil Society, Education, Government, and Political Theory

702. The "Going" of the Third Reich: Recivilizing Germans through Political Education

Author:: Dieter K. Buse
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: Historians and political sciences have begun to discuss how and when postwar Germany overcame its authoritarian past and reestablished democracy and a tolerant civil society. This article argues that the national and regional Offices for Political Education have contributed significantly to the recivilizing process. The article provides the first preliminary academic attempt to outline the offices' historical background, their changing institutional structure, and their place in the civic education context since the mid 1950s. A series of case studies examine the historical literature disseminated by specific offices to illustrate the process of overcoming a problematic past and constructing new identities. In turn, the historical role models promoted by the offices, the manner in which federalism was presented, the timing of and fashion in which the Holocaust became a significant theme and the way in which regional identities were understood and fostered, are examined. These cases illustrate how historical information was employed, at first in fairly simple and propagandistic fashion, but always to inculcate democratic and civil norms. The question of the impact of the offices' work is left open, since research on reception has yet to be undertaken, but some evidence about their important contributions to reshaping German values is provided.
Topic:: Democratization, Education, and Government
Political Geography:: Germany

703. Transport Infrastructure in Shrinking (East) Germany

Author:: Weert Canzler
Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: Policy on transport infrastructure in Germany will come under increasing pressure thanks to considerable changes in basic conditions. Demographic change, shifts in economic and regional structures, continued social individualization, and the chronic budget crisis in the public sphere are forcing a readjustment of government action. At root, the impact of the changes in demographics and economic structures touches on what Germans themselves think their postwar democracy stands for. Highly consensual underlying assumptions about Germany as a model are being shaken. The doctrine that development of infrastructure is tantamount to growth and prosperity no longer holds. The experience in eastern Germany shows that more and better infrastructure does not automatically lead to more growth. Moreover, uniform government regulation is hitting limits. If the differences between boom regions and depopulated zones remain as large as they are, then it makes no sense to have the same regulatory maze apply to both cases. In transportation policy, that shift would mean recasting the legal foundations of public transport.
Topic:: Demographics, Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:: Germany

704. The Crime of Genocide in Internatioanal Law and Underlying Social Structures of the Crime: Rwanda Case

Author:: Ebru Çoban
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: Genocide is a crime which is defined under internatioanal law in the twentieth century and could not come about without the ideological, bureaucratic power of a modern state with is sanctions and modern discources on identities and modern classifications. With a non-modern Picture but with modern techniques of governing Rwanda was a place that genocidal killings occured and is a place of a breaking case for modern theories. Rwanda has modern state characteristics in terms of monopoly of use of violence, giving orders and providing obidience of its people, surveillance, classification and registration of its people, and keeping discourses. Morever, Rwandan culture that gives great importance to obidence and Rwandan geography that is so suitable to surveillance become additional factors. In that sense, Rwandan government could influence to daily life of the people even to the smallest details of anyone. All factors provided a suitable bas efor the crime of genocide.
Topic:: Genocide, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:: Africa and Rwanda

705. Managing Defense Transformation in Small and Medium-Sized NATO Countries

Author:: Dorinel-Ioan Moldovan
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Defense transformation in small and medium-sized countries has a dialectical aspect. On one hand, it is a general process that has arisen as a result of the effect of the forces of globalization on domestic security and defense issues. As such, it is identical for all countries, having the same features. On the other hand, as a critical organizational process, defense transformation represents a unique response by each nation's defense institutions, a response that is crafted in order to cope with challenges coming from both internal and external sources. This paper will analyze the challenging dimensions of defense transformation from the perspective of the binomial relationship of willingness and affordability, and will compare the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. It is obvious that the complexity of the defense transformation process comes from the many questions it raises and requirements it poses, which each country must solve for its own specific context.
Topic:: Defense Policy, NATO, and Government

706. Foreword

Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:: Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:: Since the collapse of communism and communist states from 1989-1992, the twenty-eight states that currently comprise postcommunist Europe and Eurasia have evolved to different political directions. Some regimes in this region have completed a transition to democracy; others have been arrested at some point on the path to democracy and became a sort of 'defective democracies'; and still others have yet to break with the communist past. This issue focuses on this middle-ground category: countries where elections are regularly held, but the behavior of political actors, notably the government, but not only, is not always democratic. Albania, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus countries present a great variation among themselves, but have also something in common: they do not fit well the classic patterns of either democracy or authoritarianism. The regional trend, particularly noticeable over the past decade, showed hybrid regimes resisting to political change - either in the direction of becoming authentic democracies or reverting back to dictatorship. The purpose of this issue is to explore the lessons for democratization that can be drawn from the postcommunist experience over the past seventeen years. First, what explains defective democracies? Second, what can and cannot be transferred from successful Central Europe to the rest of countries? Finally, is there still a future for democracy promotion in postcommunist Europe?
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Russia, Europe, Eurasia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Central Europe, and Belarus

707. Turkey's New Approaches toward the PKK, Iraqi Kurds and the Kurdish Question

Author:: Ertan Efegil
Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: In a sharp break from the past, Turkey's AK Party government now openly accepts the existence of a domestic Kurdish problem, and views it moreover as being mutually interrelated with the rise of separatism among Iraqi Kurds and the problem of PKK terrorism. Turkey now has official contacts with the Iraqi Kurds and is working to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem by implementing socio-economic and cultural measures in addition to the military one. While the Iraqi Kurds, the American administration and Turkey are beginning to reconcile their differences concerning the Kurdish issue, Turkey faces internal division; certain parties such as the General Staff, the National Movement Party and the Democratic Society Party continue to push for radical measures. Today, there seems to be little opportunity to find common understanding. But as existing conditions deteriorate and pressure mounts both within the domestic sphere and from the international community, it grows increasingly important for Turkey to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish issue.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Iraq and Turkey

708. The Kurdish Issue: Can the AK Party Escape Securitization?

Author:: Rabia Karakaya Polat
Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The Kurdish question has been a source of domestic conflict since the inception of the Turkish Republic. It has been one of the mostly securitized issues in domestic politics. Despite the continuation of the securitizing agenda, and years of denial by the state, in the mid-1990s alternative discourses on the cultural rights of the Kurds started to emerge. The AK Party government departed from previous attitudes by repeatedly emphasizing the Kurds\' right to express their culture and identity. This article analyzes the developments regarding the Kurdish issue during the AK Party government and asks whether they can be seen as a desecuritization process. The article argues that although there are significant signs of desecuritization, Turkey continues to swing between forces, agendas, and actors of securitization and desecuritization when it comes to the Kurdish issue.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Turkey

709. Building Counter-Terrorism Capacity Across Borders: Lessons from the Defeat of "Revolutionary Organization November 17th"

Author:: Christos Floros and Bruce Newsome
Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:: Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:: Since 2001, governments have made more resources available for building counter-terrorist capacity abroad, but performance has not matched the rhetoric. Lessons from the defeat of the November 17th terrorist organization in Greece suggest that political or material commitments are necessary but insufficient conditions of international counter-terrorist capacity-building. More important, but less acknowledged, are the organizational conditions. Governments should encourage more cooperative, less self-reliant cultures in their agencies, develop multi-laterally beneficial objectives, and prohibit activities unauthorised by the host country. Some of the lessons, such as adherence to the same rules of law by all stakeholders, confirm norms in security sector reform. Others, such as increased security sector powers, run counter to those norms.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: America and Greece

710. Secrets and Lies: The Persecution of Muhammad Salah (Part 2)

Author:: Michael E. Deutsch and Erica Thompson
Publication Date:: 10-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:: Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:: Secrets and Lies: The Persecution of Muhammad Salah (Part 2)Michael E. Deutsch and Erica ThompsonJournal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 38, no. 1 (Autumn 2008), p. 25Special FeatureAmong the handful of high-profile terrorism cases in which the U.S. government has failed to win convictions in jury trials, that of Muhammad Salah stands out. Like the cases against Sami Al-Arian, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, and the Holy Land Foundation, the case against Salah was built on the criminalization of political support for the Palestinian resistance. But while the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is at the core of all four cases, Salah's, unlike the others, was primarily about Israel: the case was manufactured in Israel, the evidence on which it was based was generated in Israel, and its prosecution depended on close U.S.-Israeli cooperation at every turn.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Israel

711. Turning to the Left? Understanding Some Unexpected Events in Latin America

Author:: Carlos M. Vilas
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela are currently ruled by governments that are typically considered to be on the left of the political spectrum due to their progressive, reformist stances. Together, these states account for almost two thirds of Latin America's population and roughly half of its combined GDP. In the 2006 presidential election in Mexico, the candidate who shared the political views of the aforementioned states was defeated by less than percent in a contested turnout.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Latin America, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia

712. Sovereign Wealth Funds and the International Monetary System

Author:: Anthony Elson
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: Since the end of last year, much public attention has been focused on the growing importance of sovereign wealth funds (hereafter SWFs), which are large investment pools managed by national governments primarily among oil exporters and emerging market economies. Many of these governments have accumulated substantial foreign reserves because of large trade surpluses, some of which they have begun to invest in a range of financial instruments that is more diversified than is typically the case for central bank international reserves in order to improve the yield on their foreign asset positions.
Topic:: Economics and Government

713. The Cultural Impact on China's New Diplomacy

Author:: Wilfried Bolewski and Candy M. Rietig
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: China is in a state of universal change—economically, culturally, politically and diplomatically—and the international community is taking note of the Chinese posture as an ascending global power. As a nation, China has economically liberalized and opened up to the world while retaining a government that by some definitions would be considered authoritarian. Previously an aloof international actor, increased participation in international organizations like the United Nations and dramatic increases in contributions to peacekeeping missions are just two examples of the larger soft power network Beijing is establishing. These activities in public diplomacy are aimed at raising international popularity and acceptance of an ascending China through cooperative behavior and international engagement. As Jamie Roth puts it, “China's new public diplomacy seems to have taken careful note of how to strengthen the country's image abroad through cultural relations.”Because the Chinese want to be able to deal with the challenges of a globalized world, they have adopted a strategy of learning from other participants.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Economics, Government, and United Nations
Political Geography:: China and Beijing

714. Law Markets: A model for Predicting Laws, Governments, and Institutions

Author:: Graham Lawlor
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: Law Markets is a positive economic model, which treats laws as tradable goods, citizens as consumers of laws, and governments as producers of laws. This model borrows heavily from the fields of Public Choice, which models political actors as economic agents, and from New Institutional Economics, which analyzes social contracts in the presence of transaction costs. The financial fields of Efficient Markets Theory and Behavioral Finance provide tools to measure transaction costs and empirical studies to demonstrate long-term trends.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Law

715. European and American Roles in Nation-Building

Author:: James Dobbins
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Contrary to popular belief, the number of conflicts and the number of casualties, refugees and displaced persons resulting from them has fallen dramatically since the end of the Cold War. Previously, with neither superpower wanting a dispute to be settled to its disadvantage, conflicts dragged on indefinitely or were permanently frozen. After 1989, dynamics changed and international interventions began to pursue more far-reaching objectives: to disarm combatants, promote civil society, restore the economy, etc. Nation-building thus replaced inter-positional peacekeeping as the dominant form of international intervention with such missions becoming larger, longer and more frequent. The UN's success rate, as measured in enhanced security, economic growth, return of refugees and installation of representative governments meets or exceeds that of NATO- and EU-led missions in almost every category. It is time, therefore, for Western governments, militaries and populations to get over their disappointment at the UN's early failures and begin once again to do their fair share in these efforts.
Topic:: NATO, Cold War, and Government
Political Geography:: America and Europe

716. Not a Zero-Sum Game: Atlanticism and Europeanism in Italian Foreign Policy

Author:: Osvaldo Croci
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: In Italy, Atlanticism and Europeanism should not be seen as two alternative and therefore mutually exclusive policies. Strengthening Atlanticism, for instance, does not necessarily correspond to an equal weakening of Europeanism, as implicitly assumed by those who expect a tilt one way or the other each time a centre-right government replaces a centre-left one or vice versa. Rather, the two policies are hierarchical and constitute a "nested game", with Europeanism nested, as it were, in Atlanticism. Italy's foreign policy choices thus result from a double constraint, one of which, Atlanticism, is more important than the other, Europeanism. More precisely, Italian foreign policymakers have traditionally regarded Europeanism as a policy aimed at reinforcing Atlanticism.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Government
Political Geography:: Europe

717. Gordon Brown Comes to Brussels (Reluctantly)

Author:: Brendan Donnelly
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Despite the belief of some that British Prime Minister Brown's attitudes towards the European Union could not be predicted, much in his period as Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested that Britain's role within the European Union would not be a high priority of his premiership. Early indications bear out this expectation. There will probably not be a British referendum on the Reform Treaty, but the rhetoric employed by Brown's government to describe the Treaty will be negative and minimalist. Although no significant body of British opinion favours with-drawal from the European Union, British popular resentment towards the Union is unlikely to disappear under Brown's leadership.
Topic:: Government and Reform
Political Geography:: Britain and Europe

718. From the Editor

Author:: Craig Biddle
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Welcome to the now-orange-for-better-visibility-on-the-newsstands Fall 2008 issue of TOS. Here is a preview of the seven articles at hand:My essay, "McBama vs. America," surveys the promises of John McCain and Barack Obama, shows that these intentions are at odds with the American ideal of individual rights, demonstrates that the cause of such political aims is a particular moral philosophy (shared by McCain and Obama), and calls for Americans to repudiate that morality and to embrace instead a morality that supports the American ideal.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Japan and America

719. The Resurgence of Big Government

Author:: Yaron Brook
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Following the economic disasters of the 1960s and 1970s, brought on by the statist policies of the political left, America seemed to change course. Commentators called the shift the "swing to the right"-that is, toward capitalism. From about 1980 to 2000, a new attitude took hold: the idea that government should be smaller, that recessions are best dealt with through tax cuts and deregulation, that markets work pretty effectively, and that many existing government interventions are doing more harm than good. President Bill Clinton found it necessary to declare, "The era of big government is over." Today that attitude has virtually vanished from the public stage. We are now witnessing a swing back to the left-toward statism. As a wave of recent articles have proclaimed: The era of big government is back. The evidence is hard to miss. Consider our current housing and credit crisis. From day one, it was blamed on the market and a lack of oversight by regulators who were said to be "asleep at the wheel." In response to the crisis, the government, the policy analysts, the media, and the American people demanded action, and everyone understood this to mean more government, more regulation, more controls. We got our wish. First came the Fed's panicked slashing of interest rates. Then the bailout of Bear Stearns. Then the bailout of Freddie Mac. Then a $300 billion mortgage bill, which passed by a substantial margin and was signed into law by President Bush. No doubt more is to come. All of this intervention, of course, is supported by our presidential candidates. Both blame Wall Street for the current problems and vow to increase the power of the Fed's and the SEC's financial regulators. John McCain has announced that there are "some greedy people on Wall Street that perhaps need to be punished." Both he and Barack Obama envision an ever-growing role for government in the marketplace, each promises to raise taxes in some form or another, and both support more regulations, particularly on Wall Street. Few doubt they will keep these promises. What do Americans think of all this? A recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News found that 53 percent of Americans want the government to "do more to solve problems." Twelve years earlier, Americans said they opposed government interference by a 2-to-1 margin. In fact, our government has been "doing more" throughout this decade. While President Bush has paid lip service to freer markets, his administration has engineered a vast increase in the size and reach of government. He gave us Sarbanes-Oxley, the largest expansion of business regulation in decades. He gave us the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the largest new entitlement program in thirty years. He gave us the "No Child Left Behind Act," the largest expansion of the federal government in education since 1979. This is to say nothing of the orgy of spending over which he has presided: His 2009 budget stands at more than $3 trillion-an increase of more than a $1 trillion since he took office. All of this led one conservative columnist to label Bush "a big government conservative." It was not meant as a criticism. Americans entered the 21st century enjoying the greatest prosperity in mankind's history. And many agreed that this prosperity was mainly the result of freeing markets from government intervention, not only in America, but also around the world. Yet today, virtually everyone agrees that markets have failed. Why? What happened? To identify the cause of today's swing to the left, we need first to understand the cause and consequences of the swing to the right.
Topic:: Education and Government
Political Geography:: America

720. Mandatory Health Insurance: Wrong for Massachusetts, Wrong for America

Author:: Paul Hsieh
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Identifies the theory behind the Massachusetts mandatory health insurance program, exposes the program as a fiasco, explains why the theory had to fail in practice, and sheds light on the only genuine, rights-respecting means to affordable, accessible health care for Americans.
Topic:: Government and Health
Political Geography:: America

721. The Tyranny of the Market: Why You Can't Always Get What You Want

Author:: Eric Daniels
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: According to Joel Waldfogel, a professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School of Business, "a dominant strand of current thinking" regards markets as superior to government when it comes to providing consumers with what they want. When government undertakes the provision of goods, the products offered are limited to those that meet with the approval of the majority, whereas "[m]arkets are thought to avoid the tyranny of the majority because in markets each person can decide what she wants." According to this dominant argument, he writes, "what's available to me in markets depends only on my preferences, not on anyone else's" (p. 2). In his recent book, The Tyranny of the Market, Waldfogel challenges this assumption. When one considers what actually happens in free markets, when one considers the products available therein, says Waldfogel, "it's clear that you can be better off in your capacity as a consumer of a particular product as more consumers share your preferences" (p. 4). In other words, you are more likely to get exactly what you want if your tastes are shared by the majority and less likely to get exactly what you want if your tastes differ from the majority. Thus, Waldfogel contends, when it comes to providing the goods that people want, "the market does not generally avoid the tyranny of the majority" any more than does a democratic political system that allocates goods (p. 6). Waldfogel's goal is to examine "how markets actually work" in order to allow policy makers and citizens to balance the shortcomings of markets against the shortcomings of government and "to determine an appropriate mix in each arena" (p. 36). Toward this end, he leads the reader through a series of examples in which there appears to be a breakdown in the market provision of goods. . . .
Topic:: Government

722. Reason or Faith: The Republican Alternative

Author:: John David Lewis
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Analyzes the resounding Republican defeat and shows that the party faces a fundamental decision that will determine whether it orchestrates a comeback or stumbles into further defeat.
Topic:: Education and Government
Political Geography:: Taliban

723. The Assault on Energy Producers

Author:: Brian P. Simpson
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: "We've got to go after the oil companies," says President-elect Barack Obama in response to high oil and gasoline prices. "We've got to go after [their] windfall profits." Explaining the purpose of recently proposed energy legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says: "We are forcing oil companies to change their ways. We will hold them accountable for unconscionable price-gouging and force them to invest in renewable energy or pay a price for refusing to do so." Calling for government seizure of private power plants, California Senate Leader John Burton insists: "We have to do something. These people have got us by the throat. They're making more money than God, and we've got to fight back-not with words, but with actions." This attitude toward energy producers, which is practically unanimous among American politicians today, is wreaking havoc not only on the lives and rights of these producers, but on the lives and rights of Americans in general. It leads to laws and regulations that prohibit producers and consumers from acting on their rational judgment with respect to energy. It causes energy shortages, brownouts, and blackouts that thwart everyone's ability to be productive and enjoy life. And it results in higher prices not only for energy, but for every good and service that depends on energy-which means every good and service in the marketplace, from food to transportation to medical care to sporting events to education to housing. Energy producers, like all rational businessmen, are in business to make money. Profits are what motivate them to exert the requisite brain power, to engage in the necessary research, and to invest the massive amounts of money required to produce and deliver the energy we need to light, heat, and cool our homes, and to power the factories, workplaces, and tools required to produce the goods on which our lives depend. Their profit motive is to our benefit. Moreover, energy producers, like all human beings, have a moral right to act according to their own judgment so long as they do not violate the rights of others. They have a moral right to use and dispose of the product of their effort as they see fit. They have a moral right to contract with customers by mutual consent to mutual benefit. In other words, they have a moral right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. And it is only by respecting these rights that we can expect energy producers to produce energy. So let us examine the assault on these producers, count the ways in which this assault is both impractical and immoral, and specify what must be done to rectify this injustice. . . .
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: America and California

724. New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Author:: Eric Daniels
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Seventy-five years have elapsed since Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the flurry of government programs he called the New Deal. In the years since, most historians have lavished FDR with praise, claiming that his bold leadership helped to pull America out of the Great Depression. Even those who acknowledge the failure of particular Roosevelt-era programs claim that FDR instilled hope and confidence in the American people, and that his economic failures were the result of his not going far enough in his policies and not spending enough money. Today, amidst calls for increasing government regulation of the financial industry and increasing government spending through stimulus packages, the New Deal is making a comeback. In light of the recent mortgage crisis and economic downturn, pundits are calling for a revival of 1930s-style policies. Daniel Gross claimed at Slate.com that New Deal reforms were "saving capitalism again." Newly minted Nobel economist Paul Krugman issued calls in the New York Times for President-elect Obama to mimic and expand FDR's response to the Great Depression. And a recent Time cover called for a "New New Deal"-and featured an iconic photo of FDR, with Obama's face and hands substituted. As the Obama administration begins to implement its economic plan, Americans would do well to reexamine the history of the original New Deal and its effects. Though most historians rank FDR as a great president, some, including Burton Folsom Jr., boldly dare to ask if "the New Deal, rather than helping to cure the Great Depression, actually help[ed to] prolong it" (p. 7). According to Folsom, a professor of history at Hillsdale College, the answer is clearly the latter. In New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America, he challenges the myth that FDR's New Deal represents a shining moment in American history. As long as the mythology surrounding the New Deal remains intact, he notes, "the principles of public policy derived from the New Deal will continue to dominate American politics" (p. 15), costing Americans billions of dollars and further damaging the economy. . . .
Topic:: Economics, Government, and History
Political Geography:: America

725. Property Rights and the Crisis of the Electric Grid

Author:: Raymond C. Niles
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Surveys the history and achievements of America's electricity entrepreneurs, shows how government interference in the transmission grid has hampered their enterprises from the outset to the present day, and indicates what America must do to liberate the grid and enable a new wave of entrepreneurs to supply this vital product commensurate with the country's demand.
Topic:: Economics and Government
Political Geography:: New York and America

726. Vindicating Capitalism: The Real History of the Standard Oil Company

Author:: Alex Epstein
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Who were we that we should succeed where so many others failed? Of course, there was something wrong, some dark, evil mystery, or we never should have succeeded!1 -John D. Rockefeller The Standard Story of Standard Oil In 1881, The Atlantic magazine published Henry Demarest Lloyd's essay "The Story of a Great Monopoly"-the first in-depth account of one of the most infamous stories in the history of capitalism: the "monopolization" of the oil refining market by the Standard Oil Company and its leader, John D. Rockefeller. "Very few of the forty millions of people in the United States who burn kerosene," Lloyd wrote,
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States and New York

727. Proof of the Atomic Theory

Author:: David Harriman
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Author's note: The following is adapted from a chapter of my book in progress, "The Inductive Method in Physics." Whereas my article "The 19th-Century Atomic War" (TOS, Summer 2006) focused on the opposition to the atomic theory that arose from positivist philosophy, this article focuses on the evidence for the atomic theory and the epistemological criteria of proof. It is necessary to repeat some material from my earlier articles in TOS, but the repetition is confined mainly to the first few pages below.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: New York

728. "Color Revolutions": Uniformity in Diversity

Author:: Yu. Sharkov
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: East View Information Services
Abstract:: A wave of so-called "color revolutions" has swept the world, including the post-Soviet space, over recent decades. They followed the same scenario although they had different names ("the Rose Revolution" in Georgia, "the Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, "the Tulip Revolution" in Kyrgyzstan or "the Potato Revolution" in Belarus).
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Belarus

729. U.S.-Korea Relations

Author:: Victor D. Cha
Publication Date:: 10-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Comparative Connections
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: The big news in the penultimate quarter of 2008 centered on leadership ills (literally) in North Korea and Pyongyang's rolling back of the six-party denuclearization agreement. On the U.S.-ROK front, President George W. Bush made his last trip to Asia of his presidency, stopping for a brief visit in South Korea on his way to the Beijing Olympics. While the free trade agreement (FTA) remains mired in U.S. domestic politics, important low-key agreements were reached to help bolster the people-to-people aspects of the alliance. As the quarter ended, the Bush administration was making preparations to make what some described as a last ditch effort to salvage the aid-for-denuclearization deal with North Korea by sending Six-Party Talks negotiator Christopher Hill to Pyongyang for a third time.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States, Beijing, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

730. U.S.-Southeast Asia Relations

Author:: Sheldon W. Simon
Publication Date:: 10-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Comparative Connections
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: The cancellation of a draft peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government triggered renewed violence in the Philippine south and allegations that U.S. forces are involved in Philippine armed forces suppression activities. Both Manila and Washington deny the charges, though U.S. Special Operations Forces have been training the Philippine military in Mindanao since 2002. The U.S. has added new sanctions against Burma's junta and continues to criticize its political repression, while aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis remains under the Burmese military's control. Ratification for ASEAN's new Charter by its member states has been achieved by eight of the 10 countries. The delays include concerns in the Indonesian and Philippine legislatures about Burma's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the junta's insistence that any ASEAN Human Rights Commission be toothless. The U.S. State Department has expressed concern over the Malaysian government's arrest of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on suspicious sodomy charges. Malaysian leaders responded angrily that the U.S. complaint constitutes interference in Kuala Lumpur's domestic politics and that Washington is not “the policeman of the world.”
Topic:: Development and Government
Political Geography:: United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Burma, and Southeast Asia

731. Japan-Korea Relations

Author:: Ji-Young Lee and David C. Kang
Publication Date:: 10-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Comparative Connections
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: Although there was little movement in Japan's relations with North Korea, this quarter was dominated by the news leaking out of North Korea in early September that Kim Jong-il was potentially very sick. Questions about Kim's health, the status of his leadership in North Korea, and the future of North Korea's leadership quickly dominated discussion. Coupled with Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda's surprise resignation and the quick choice of Aso Taro as prime minister, Japanese foreign policy was on a brief hiatus while the new leader set his own agenda. Known as a conservative, it is expected that Aso will take a harder line toward the North – and the region more generally – than did Fukuda. But his official appointment, coming on Sept. 24, was so recent that it is too early to see how Aso plans to proceed. Thus, there was actually little substantive change in Japan's relations with North Korea, and the quarter ended basically where it began.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Japan, North Korea, and Korea

732. On the Republika Srpska's Government Report

Author:: Michèle Picard and Asta Zinbo
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: Cet article présente les origines, la mise en place, le travail et les suites du rapport par lequel le gouvernement de la Republika Srpska (RS) a, en juin 2004, reconnu la réalité du massacre de Srebrenica de juillet 1995. A l'origine, la Chambre des droits de l'Homme de Bosnie-Herzégovine a rendu en 2003 une décision qui ordonnait à la RS de faire une enquête sur les événements de Srebrenica. Suite à cette décision, le gouvernement de la RS a institué une commission aux travaux de laquelle un représentant de la Commission internationale pour les personnes portées disparues (ICMP) a été associée. Cet article présente d'abord le point de vue de la Chambre, puis celui de l'ICMP, institutions à la fois distinctes et complémentaires des juridictions pénales, qui, s'appuyant sur le principe de la défense des droits de l'Homme, considèrent les droits et le sort individuels des victimes de Srebrenica, morts et survivants, et la responsabilité collective du gouvernement de la RS.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Balkans

733. Existe-t-il une religion civile républicaine?

Author:: Jean Baubérot
Publication Date:: 08-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: La notion de « religion civile » provient, on le sait, de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, et elle a été, ces dernières décennies, reprise et réinterprétée par des sociologues et des historiens. En France, il est assez courant d'opposer la « laïcité républicaine » (française) à la religion civile américaine. Cet article propose, au contraire, l'hypothèse que la question de la « religion civile » se situe au coeur de la spécificité de la laïcité française dans sa dimension historique comme dans son actualité. La Cour constitutionnelle italienne considère, depuis 1989, le principe de laïcité comme fondamental ; plusieurs pays (Portugal, Russie) ont inscrit la laïcité dans leur Constitution ; le Québec a explicitement laïcisé ses écoles en 2000, etc. Et, pourtant, la laïcité continue d'apparaître souvent comme une « exception française » Or cette exceptionnalité n'est nullement conforme à la pensée des pères fondateurs de la laïcité française : Ferdinand Buisson, le maître d'oeuvre (au côté de Jules Ferry et de ses successeurs) de la laïcisation de l'école, et Aristide Briand, l'auteur principal de la loi de séparation des Églises et de l'État de 1905, envisageaient la laïcité de façon universaliste et non substantialiste : il existe pour eux des pays plus ou moins laïques, et la France n'est pas le pays le plus laïque du globe.
Topic:: Civil Society, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and France

734. Les rapports ambigus entre politiques et citoyens: le cas du réaménagement du quartier des Halles à Paris

Author:: Pierre Diméglio and Jodelle Zetlaoui-Léger
Publication Date:: 08-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: While Mayor Bertrand Delanoë had omitted the renovation of Les Halles in his plans for the city in his 2001 inaugural address, in 2002, at the urging of the RATP and Espace Expansion, he decided to create a working group to undertake this project during his tenure. Having made citizen participation a new goal for local government, he also announced that the project would be undertaken with Parisians, especially local associations. The first part of this article emphasizes the different postures that elected politicians, engineers, and experts have adopted over the course of forty years vis-à-vis the question of citizen participation in urban planning. The second part explores the decision- making process for the Les Halles renovation over the last four years; it considers the issues and difficulties linked to the implementation of participatory plans incorporating residents––whether they are members of local groups or not––in complex urban planning projects.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Paris

735. Uganda's Civil War and the Politics of ICC Intervention

Author:: Adam Branch
Publication Date:: 06-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: With its 2003 ''Referral of the Situation Concerning the Lord's Resistance Army'' to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Ugandan government launched a legal process that, it claimed, would bring peace and justice to war-torn northern Uganda. The ICC prosecutor officially opened an investigation in response to the referral in July 2004, and in October 2005 the ICC unsealed arrest warrants, its historic first warrants in its historic first case, charging five of the top commanders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) with war crimes and crimes against humanity. For two decades, Uganda north of the Nile has been ravaged by a brutal civil war between the LRA and the Ugandan government, so any possibility of productive change is to be warmly welcomed. The sanguine predictions proffered by the Ugandan government and by the ICC's supporters, however, are called into question by doubts about the court's ability to achieve peace or justice in Uganda, doubts stemming from the specific way the ICC has pursued the Ugandan case, and because of more inherent problems with the ICC as a legal institution.
Topic:: Government and War
Political Geography:: Uganda

736. East Asian Environmental Co-operation: Central Pessimism, Local Optimism

Author:: Sangbum Shin
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: University of British Columbia
Abstract:: This paper examines the regional environmental co-operation in East Asia at the local government level, focusing on the intercity environmental co-operation between the two cities in Japan and China—Kitakyushu and Dalian—as a case. Theoretically, this case demonstrates the dynamic nature of local government level environmental co-operation in the sense that all the three levels—government, local government, and private—are closely interconnected, and the major actors—the firms—play a role in shaping the outcome of intercity co-operation. Also, in terms of policy implication, this case is important not just for East Asian but also global environmental politics because it is the co-operation between cities in China and Japan—the two most important countries in East Asia that affect regional and global environmental protections efforts seriously. In order to investigate the reasons of success, and the dynamic nature of intercity environmental co-operation, this paper suggests a framework for analysis on the relationship between multiple dimensions of regional environmental co-operation, and then, examines the historical process and the details of the case and explains why this case has been remarkably successful and produced significant outcome. Finally, it draws some theoretical as well as policy implications of this case in terms of possibilities for and limitations of East Asian regional environmental co-operation in the future.
Topic:: Environment and Government
Political Geography:: Japan, China, and East Asia

737. Red world, Blue world

Author:: Joshua Brook
Publication Date:: 06-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: World Policy Institute
Abstract:: Since the 2000 presidential election, political scientists, commentators, and intellectuals have seized on the "red state"/"blue state" divide to explain American politics. The United States is described as a single country with two distinct cultures. Red Americans tend to oppose abortion, regard homosexuality as moral deviance, respect the military, and look kindly on public displays of religious faith. Blue Americans, on the other hand, support environmentalism, abortion rights, gender equality, and gay rights, while opposing militarism and overt displays of patriotism and religious zeal.
Topic:: Globalization, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States and America

738. Women in America: The Other Fifty Percent

Author:: Christina Bache Fidan
Publication Date:: 04-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: ARI Movement
Abstract:: Historically, if you were not a property owning white male you did not have the right to vote in America. The decision to allow women the right to vote, after a long struggle, in 1920, was a key turning point in the transformation of the American democratic experience. The challenge from then on, of making this right meaningful across America, through changing mindsets and training women, was left, for the most part, on the shoulders of civil society. To secure a higher representation of the national congressional seats in Washington, the Federal Government must reinforce legislation such as affirmative action for gender mainstreaming in all policy areas. The inclusion and empowerment of women in the political arena is of utmost importance to achieving a government that is truly "by the people, for the people."
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: America and Europe

739. "I'm just talking about the law": Guantánamo and the Lawyers

Author:: Marten Zwanenburg
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: “Because the legal advice was we could do what we wanted to them there”. This is how a top-level Pentagon official, in David Rose's Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights, explains why detainees held by the United States have been detained at Guantanamo Bay. It is just one illustration of the important role that lawyers have played in the “War on Terror”—a role, along with factors that have or that may have influenced it, that forms the topic of this essay.
Topic:: Government, Human Rights, and Torture
Political Geography:: United States

740. Can Corruption Ever Improve an Economy?

Author:: Douglas A. Houston
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Many in the world of developmental economics believe that corruption, the circumvention of the rule of law for private gain, leads to nothing but woe for any nation's economy, under any circumstances. Transparency International makes the elimination of corruption their mission, and many large multinational firms today echo that goal by building ethical codes that prohibit employees from engaging in practices deemed corrupt, regardless of local attitudes and customs toward the practices. The World Bank makes curbing corruption a linchpin in their campaign to improve governance. Reasons given for blanket condemnation of corrupt behavior are often utilitarian: Corruption is expected to increase the economic costs of doing business by undermining the laws of the land; this, in turn, reduces productive activities and investments, with negative consequences unfolding for human development and economic growth.
Topic:: Corruption, Economics, and Government

741. The Practical Origins Of The Rhetorical Presidency

Author:: Terri Bimes
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: As readers of The Rhetorical Presidency might expect, the Framers\' remarks at the Constitutional Convention revealed a deep concern about popular political ignorance—and a desire to shield the new government from it. However, when it came to designing the presidency, the Founders seem to have been less intent on insulating sitting presidents from the mass public than on guarding the presidents\' selection itself against elite factions that might take advantage of the public\'s ignorance. The resulting constitutional structure left the actual relationship between the president and the public open-ended. In short order, even the most restrained, patrician presidents took advantage of the opportunity to invoke, and to shape, public opinion—setting the stage for Andrew Jackson\'s, and his Democratic successors\', more aggressive presidential populism.
Topic:: Government

742. The Idea of An Unrhetoricla Presidency

Author:: Bryan Garsten
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency should not be read as a tale of decline. It is not a call for an “un-rhetorical” presidency so much as an exploration of the fundamentally uneasy place that popular rhetoric occupies in constitutional governments. Popular rhetoric is one way that executives exercise their prerogative power, and the dilemmas about rhetoric that Tulis exposes arise from a fundamental fact about prerogative power that all presidents must confront: Strong constitutional governments seem almost necessarily to grant their chief executives more discretionary authority than is consistent with the idea of constitutional government. Whatever rhetorical style or strategy a president adopts, he must respond in one way or another to this fact.
Topic:: Government

743. The Rhetorical Presidency and The Partisan Echo Chamber

Author:: Nicole Mellow
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The rise of a partisan Congress can aggravate some of the pathologies of the rhetorical presidency identified by Jeffrey Tulis: reckless policy production, and the resulting public disillusionment with an overpromising government. In some cases, such as the debate over the invasion of Iraq, the unified ranks of the president's party amplify the president's simplistic rhetoric, reducing policy deliberation and aggravating public disappointment when reality turns out to be more complex. When combined with divided government, however, partisanship can work to produce deliberative compromises that mitigate these pathologies, as exemplified by the welfare-reform legislation enacted by a Republican Congress under a Democratic president in 1996.
Topic:: Government

744. Allegories of Reading Tulis

Author:: Diane Rubenstein
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency is deceptively titled. It is not about rhetoric or political symbolism or even about the American presidency as such, as were many postmodern studies produced in the Reagan era. Rather, Tulis re-situates rhetoric: a minor theme in a story about the presidency becomes an important avenue into profound questions of political order and republican governance. Like Tulis, I approach my thesis obliquely; I distinguish his from other, seemingly similar, works (and realign him with other rhetorical readers, such as Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida) to underscore what I see as the book's lasting legacy: its explication of the double binds and central paradoxes of republican governance (seen, for example, in presidential prerogative), and its articulation of the role of rhetoric in institutional transformation.
Topic:: Government and Governance
Political Geography:: America

745. Western Integration vs. Reunification? Analyzing the Polls of the 1950s

Author:: Anja Kruke
Publication Date:: 06-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: From the beginning of the West German state, a lot of public opinion polling was done on the German question. The findings have been scrutinized carefully from the 1950s onward, but polls have always been taken at face value, as a mirror of society. In this analysis, polls are treated rather as an observation technique of empirical social research that composes a certain image of society and its public opinion. The entanglement of domestic and international politics is analyzed with respect to the use of surveys that were done around the two topics of Western integration and reunification that pinpoint the “functional entanglement” of domestic and international politics. The net of polling questions spun around these two terms constituted a complex setting for political actors. During the 1950s, surveys probed and ranked the fears and anxieties that characterized West Germans and helped to construct a certain kind of atmosphere that can be described as “Cold War angst.” These findings were taken as the basis for dealing with the dilemma of Germany caught between reunification and Western integration. The data and interpretations were converted into “security” as the overarching frame for international and domestic politics by the conservative government that lasted until the early 1960s.
Topic:: Security, Cold War, and Government
Political Geography:: Germany and West Germany

746. Spying on Terrorists: Germany in Comparative Perspective

Author:: A. James McAdams
Publication Date:: 08-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: Intelligence and law enforcement agencies in western democracies are turning increasingly to electronic surveillance tools in their efforts to identify and combat new terrorist threats. But this does not mean that they are equally equipped to undertake these measures. As the author shows by comparing surveillance activities in three countries—Great Britain, the United States, and Germany—the Federal Republic's more restrictive legal norms and institutions provide its government with much less freedom of maneuver than its allies.
Topic:: Government, Intelligence, and Law
Political Geography:: Britain, United States, and Germany

747. The EU in Somalia: Furthering Peacemaking and Reconciliation

Author:: Mario Raffaelli
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Since the Transitional Federal Institutions were established after the 2002 Nairobi Conference, the situation in Somalia has seen two drastic about-turns - in opposite directions. In June 2006, starting out from Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts rapidly extended their control over most of south-central Somalia. Now, after the Ethiopian military intervention, the Transitional Government is trying to establish itself in the capital and to effectively exercise its formal authority for the first time. But the military defeat of the Courts has not solved the problems that initially made their success possible. Only reconciliation can create real stability and the European Union can contribute to achieving this. A peaceful and stable Horn of Africa is in the EU's interest, given the risks of it becoming a breeding ground for Al Qaeda-like organisations and a source of immigration. Somalia could also become a test case for solving the problems of a failed state by peaceful means, and an example of the EU's willingness and ability to have an effective dialogue with the Islamic world. Success in Somalia would strengthen the EU as a regional player with Arab and Muslim countries.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Europe and Somalia

748. How to Change Your Foreign Policy in 100 Days: A New Course with Prodi?

Author:: Elisabetta Brighi
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Conventional wisdom has it that the new government of Romano Prodi managed to effect a significant "shift" in Italy's foreign policy away from the course of the centre-right in the proverbial first 100 days of government. A number of discontinuities with the foreign policy of the Berlusconi government have been invoked, ranging from Italy's relations with Europe and its transatlantic posture, to its engagement with areas of crisis such as the Middle East. But these claims have to be substantially qualified. In fact, it appears that the foreign policy of the Prodi government has rather pragmatically blended elements of change and continuity, and that the shift which has occurred in some areas should be understood more as a combination of domestic and international developments than a result of the change in government alone. Moreover, in order to really change Italy's foreign policy - and change it for the better - the government should focus on a different set of priorities, mainly the institutions, instruments, politics, and ideas of foreign policy.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Government
Political Geography:: Europe and Italy

749. The International Security Involvement of Federated States: Comparing Massachusetts, Illinois and Flanders

Author:: Bruno Coppieters
Publication Date:: 06-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Application of the federal principle of shared sovereignty to external security policies directed against foreign states can easily give rise to a situation in which the federation ceases to be an indivisible subject in an international setting. This can in turn lead to conflicts between the two levels. A comparison of three instances of sanctions adopted by federated states - the sanction policies of Massachusetts in support of the democratisation of Myanmar/Burma (1996-2000), the divestment policies of Illinois in opposition to the governmental policies of Sudan (2006- ), and the participation by Flanders in Belgian and European sanctions in protest against the Freedom Party's participation in the Austrian government (2000) - confirms this thesis.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Europe, Sudan, and Burma

750. New Trends in China's Foreign Investment Strategy

Author:: Lorenzo Sasso
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: China now holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves mainly thanks to dynamic export activities. In order to invest and manage these foreign exchange reserves, the Chinese government recently announced the constitution of a new State Foreign Exchange Investment Company (SFEIC) aimed at improving the yield on them. This new investment vehicle will face multiple challenges ranging from showing solid financial gains to establishing effective rules for corporate governance that guarantee transparency in company management. In addition to the legal aspects, numerous economic and political implications will arise from this new government-controlled tool.
Topic:: Government and Governance
Political Geography:: China

751. Why the U.S. External Imbalance Matters

Author:: William R Cline
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Last year the U.S. current account deficit (mainly on trade but including capital income and transfers) reached almost 7 percent of GDP, or about twice as large a share as in 1987, the peak of the previous episode of large external imbalances and dollar overvaluation. A major reason is that from 1995 to 2002 the dollar rose by 28 percent against other currencies, after taking account of inflation and weighting by trade. A strong dollar made U.S. exports expensive and imports cheap, driving up the trade deficit after about a two-year reaction time. With large and persistent external deficits, the United States has swung from being the world’s largest creditor nation to its largest debtor, with net foreign liabilities now at about one-fourth of GDP. The dollar has corrected somewhat and is now about 13 percent lower on a trade-weighted basis than its average in 2002, based on the Federal Reserve’s broad real exchange rate index. Without that partial correction the trade deficit would now be even larger. It will likely require a decline of an additional 15 to 20 percent in the dollar to cut the current account deficit back to about 3 percent of GDP. That rate would be consistent with limiting net foreign liabilities to 50 percent of GDP in the long term. Exceeding that ceiling would seem imprudent for both the U.S. and global economies. It will be crucial that China, Japan, and much of the rest of Asia participate in realignment of their currencies against the dollar, because the decline of the dollar so far has been heavily concentrated against the euro and other industrial country currencies except for the Japanese yen. Dollar correction will also need to be accompanied by fiscal adjustment. Otherwise much of the competitive effect of the dollar adjustment would be offset by higher inflation and a dollar rebound from higher interest rates. Fundamentally the external deficit is the excess of resources used over resources produced, and with U.S. household saving near zero, the government cannot be a large net borrower without keeping the nation in large external deficit.
Topic:: Government, Finance, Economy, Currency, and Deficit
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

752. Resistance to the INES project

Author:: Pierre Piazza
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: The biometric ID Card project (INES) of the French ministry of Interior has given rise to much criticism and resistance since 2005. This paper analyses the different forms of contestation and the content of the critical discourses that have led to the provisional suspension of the INES project. Le projet de carte nationale d'identité biométrique (INES) du ministère de l'Intérieur français a suscité de multiples critiques et résistances depuis 2005. Cet article analyse les différentes formes de contestation ainsi que la teneur des discours d'opposition auxquels ce projet s'est heurté et qui ont conduit à sa suspension provisoire.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: France

753. HORS-THEMES: Integration as injunction. The Ideological and Political Issues of Immigration

Author:: Danièle Lochak
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: L'étude vise à mettre en lumière les enjeux politiques, idéologiques et juridiques qui se sont noués autour de l'idée d'intégration depuis le milieu des années 1970 - moment où l'on a pris conscience que l'immigration de travailleurs, perçue comme temporaire, avait évolué vers une immigration durable et où l'intégration des immigrés est entrée dans le champ des préoccupations des pouvoirs publics avant de devenir un sujet de débat politique. Cette histoire se joue sur trois plans qui interfèrent sans cesse. L'intégration est d'abord un objet de discours ; mais le discours peine à déboucher sur des réalisations, au point d'apparaître comme un substitut à une action publique défaillante, même si l'intégration est l'un des objectifs officiellement assigné à la politique d'immigration, à côté de la « maîtrise des flux migratoires ». L'intégration est par ailleurs entravée par la réglementation du séjour et de l'éloignement : l'amalgame délibéré, dans les deux dernières « lois Sarkozy » de 2003 et 2006, entre droit au séjour et intégration, vient rappeler cette réalité souvent oubliée ou déniée.
Topic:: Government and Migration
Political Geography:: France

754. Foreword: To Arrest And To Judge In Europe: The genesis, the struggles and the issues at stake in the judicial cooperation

Publication Date:: 06-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: Les dynamiques de la coopération judiciaire sont des enjeux forts pour l'Europe. Elément fondamental du champ de la sécurité, notamment en termes de légitimation du pouvoir de police, le processus d'européanisation du pouvoir judiciaire renvoie aux questions existantes entre les problématiques européennes et les interrogations sur la gouvernementalité internationale de la sécurité.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Africa and Europe

755. In Medias Res: The Development of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a Security Community

Author:: Marc Lanteigne
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: University of British Columbia
Abstract:: As the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation observed its fifth anniversary in June 2006, the question of where the regime fits within the expanding area of international strategic institutions in Asia and elsewhere assumes an even greater importance. The SCO has begun to establish itself as a more formal actor in the complex area of Eurasian security, and has evolved from a largely consultative grouping into a security community. As well, the SCO has become the cornerstone of China's Central Asian diplomacy and its promotion of "non-alliance" forms of strategic cooperation. However, despite the SCO's endeavours to portray itself as a forum for information-sharing and confidence-building, as well as political and economic cooperation, hard power considerations remain an important part of the organisation's policymaking. Although the SCO was seen as marginalized when Western forces entered Central Asia after September 2001, the organisation plays key roles and should not be dismissed as a strategic actor and source of regional cooperation. Moreover, with American forces remaining in Central Asia for the foreseeable future and Central Asian governments becoming increasingly concerned about the potential after-shocks of the recent "colour revolutions" in the former USSR, there is the greater possibility that a more mature SCO may engage in overt power-balancing behaviour vis-à-vis the West, resulting in rivalries rather than cooperation. To prevent this scenario, it is argued that the international community should take the opportunity to better engage the SCO in the name of promoting peace and stability in Eurasia.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: China, America, Central Asia, and Eurasia

756. Dilemmas Confronting Social Entrepreneurs: Care Homes for Elderly People in Chinese Cities

Author:: Linda Wong and Jun Tang
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: University of British Columbia
Abstract:: In socialist China, rapid aging, severe shortage of public provisions for frail elders, and the state's admitted failure to meet vast unmet needs have led the state to promote the use of non-profits as a key peg of welfare policy for the elderly. To this end, the Chinese government passed the Provisional Regulation on the Registration and Management of Civilian-run Non-enterprise Units in 1998 to set out the legal framework. Using tax exemption and preferential utility charges as baits, the 1998 decree encourages the birth of nonprofits to meet the shortfall in social services. The sharp rise in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) after 1998 suggests the policy is achieving its intended effect. However, the insistence on self-sufficiency and ban on profit taking means that such agencies have to operate as social enterprises, combining their social mission with an entrepreneurial mode of management as they rely on fee charges as the primary income source. The paper begins by examining the policy and demographic contexts for old age care and the concepts of NPOs, social enterprises and social entrepreneurship. It then presents research findings on the agency profiles and operational experiences of 137 non-state care homes in three Chinese cities. This is followed by an analysis of the motives for social entrepreneurship, namely family circumstances, personal attributes, social commitment, and entrepreneurial drive. The final part discusses the link between the nonprofit policy, NPO attributes and social entrepreneurship. It is argued that it is the peculiarity of the existing policy that attracted a very special group of social investors into the old age care business.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: China

757. The Political Economy of Japanese Sanctions towards North Korea: Domestic Coalitions and International Systemic Pressures

Author:: Christopher W. Hughes
Publication Date:: 09-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Pacific Affairs
Institution:: University of British Columbia
Abstract:: Japan has often been dismissed by mainstream international relations and policy discourse as a bit-part actor in Korean Peninsula security affairs. If ascribed any role at all, it is seen as a secondary and submissive actor, generally bending to US strategy and international systemic pressures. This paper argues, however, that Japanese policy towards North Korea is now challenging these international systemic pressures, and threatening divergence with US policy. This is due to the fact that Japan's policy is increasingly driven by domestic political considerations that are rivalling or even superseding international influences in importance. In order to highlight these domestic dynamics, the paper utilizes domestic sanctions theory and a detailed empirical analysis of the Japanese policy-making process with regard to the imposition of sanctions on North Korea. It demonstrates that a "threshold coalition" has now emerged in Japan which is tipping government policy towards sanctions, irrespective of, or even in opposition to, international systemic pressures to desist from such actions. The paper highlights the changing disposition of a pluralistic range of domestic actors away from default engagement to default containment. The consequence of these aggregate domestic pressures is that the Japanese government is finding it progressively harder to converge with US and international strategy towards North Korea. Japan is thus set to augment its influence in Korean Peninsula security affairs by becoming a more obstructive partner in attempts to find an international resolution to the nuclear crisis.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Japan, North Korea, and Korea

758. War and the Liberal Democratic State

Author:: Vivienne Jabri
Publication Date:: 01-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: En matière de politique internationale, la guerre est une technologie de contrôle. Tandis que ses manifestations violentes comme l\'invasion et l\'occupation de l\'Irak sont directement ressenties par les populations visées, les pratiques qui y sont associées ainsi que ladite « guerre au terrorisme » ont des effets d\'une portée mondiale. Cet article offre une lecture de la guerre globale comme forme de contrôle propre à cette modernité tardive. Il montre que les pratiques qui constituent la guerre globale sont à comprendre en termes de matrice, ceci comprenant les Etats et leurs bureaucraties ainsi que des agents non étatiques, visant Etats, communautés particulières et individus. La matrice de la guerre opère au nom de l\'humanité, mais c\'est finalement cette même humanité qui en vient à devenir le sujet de ces opérations de contrôle global. Comme le montre l\'article, les conséquences sont monumentales pour le gouvernement, l\'examen démocratique et les espaces possibles de dissidence.
Topic:: Government and War
Political Geography:: Iraq

759. The Constitutional Protection of Socio-Economic Rights in Selected African Countries: A Comparative Evaluation

Author:: John Cantius Mubangizi
Publication Date:: 03-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:: The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:: This article evaluates the extent to which a few selected African countries have incorporated socio-economic rights in their constitutions, the mechanisms through which such rights are realised, the challenges such realisation entails and the approach taken by the courts and other human rights institutions in those countries towards the realisation and enforcement of those rights. The survey examines South Africa, Namibia, Uganda and Ghana. Apart from the logical geographical spread, all these countries enacted their present constitutions around the same time (1990 to 1996) in an attempt to transform themselves into democratic societies. In a sense, these countries can be seen as transitional societies, emerging as they have done, from long periods of apartheid and foreign domination or autocratic dictatorships. The latter is true for Uganda and Ghana while the former refers to South Africa and Namibia. The article concludes that South Africa has not only made the most advanced constitutional provision for socio-economic rights, it has also taken the lead in the judicial enforcement of such rights, an experience from which the other countries in the survey can learn.
Topic:: Development, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:: Africa

760. Genomics, Insurance and Human Rights: Is there a Place for Regulatory Frameworks in Africa?

Author:: Vincent O. Nmehielle
Publication Date:: 03-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:: The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:: This article examines the human rights dimension of genetic discrimination in Africa, exploring the place of regulatory frameworks while taking into account the disadvantaged position of the average African. This is in response to the tendency of insurance companies toward making health insurance decisions on the basis of individual genetic information, which could result in genetic discrimination or health insurance discrimination based on a person’s genetic profile. The author considers such questions as the intersection between human rights (right to life, health, privacy, human dignity and against genetic discrimination) in relation to the insurance industry, as well as the obligations of state and non-state actors to promote, respect, and protect the enjoyment of these rights. The article argues that African nations should not stand aloof in trying to balance the competing interests (scientific, economic and social) presented by the use of genetic information in the health care context and that ultimately it is the responsibility of states to develop domestic policies to protect their most vulnerable citizens and to prevent entrenched private discrimination based on an individual’s genes.
Topic:: Development, Government, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:: Africa

761. Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Publication Date:: 03-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:: The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:: These Rules of Procedure and Evidence as first amended on 7 March 2003, are applicable pursuant to Article 14 of the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and entered into force on 12 April 2002.
Topic:: Development, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:: Africa

762. Limiting Government: The Failure of “Starve the Beast”

Author:: William A. Niskanen
Publication Date:: 10-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: For nearly 30 years, many Republicans have argued that the most effective way to control federal government spending is to “starve the beast” by reducing federal tax revenues. Moreover, two Nobel laureate economists, Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, have endorsed this argument. Friedman (2003) summarized this perspective as follows: How can we ever cut government down to size? I believe there is one and only one way: the way parents control spendthrift children, cutting their allowance. For governments, this means cutting taxes. Resulting deficits will be an effective—I would go so far as to say, the only effective—restraint on the spending propensities of the executive branch and the legislature. The public reaction will make that restraint effective. Becker and his colleagues Ed Lazear and Kevin Murphy (2003) described this effect as “the double benefit of tax cuts.” (Lazear is the recently appointed chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.) This argument has been effective in unifying the Republican Party in favor of reducing federal taxes, but at the cost of undermining the more traditional Republican concern about fiscal responsibility.
Topic:: Government, Economy, Tax Systems, Fiscal Policy, and Public Spending
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

763. The Case for Market‐Based Regulation

Author:: Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
Publication Date:: 10-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: In this article, we reconsider the rationale for government regulation of markets. We begin by identifying markets as governed not only by prices but also by evolved institutions, rules, and standards. We then analyze how this complex order regulates human behavior, discuss the case for adding a layer of government regulation to the market’s own regulatory system, and present a number of case studies to clarify the issues. Our focus is not on the familiar public choice criticism of government regulation—namely, that regulation is more about the pursuit of economic rents than protecting the so-called public interest. While that criticism is correct and we make reference to it where appropriate, the thrust of our argument is that market self-regulation is often superior to government regulation, which frequently is a solution in search of a problem.
Topic:: Government, Markets, Regulation, and Economy
Political Geography:: Global Focus

764. Foreword

Publication Date:: 12-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: Confrontées d'une part à des sociétés civiles à secourir dans l'urgence et d'autre part à des gouvernements pour lesquels priment la pacification, la reconstruction et le développement, les ONG ont-elles trouvé leur équilibre d'action et de mise en oeuvre des principes qui les légitiment ? Que savons-nous du fonctionnement interne des différentes ONG humanitaires ?
Topic:: Government

765. La création de la Cour africaine des droits de l\'Homme et des peuples. Les dessous d\'une ingénierie institutionnelle multicentrée

Author:: Marielle Debos
Publication Date:: 12-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: L\'étude du processus d\'ingénierie institutionnelle de la Cour africaine des droits de l\'Homme et des peuples révèle le rôle central joué par les ONG : elles ont donné l\'impulsion initiale, orchestré la mobilisation, encadré les négociations et milité pour l\'adoption du Protocole. Ce nouveau mode de production du droit doit cependant être analysé avec un regard critique afin de déceler les logiques de pouvoir très fortes au sein du « monde multicentré ». La professionnalisation des ONG et l\'autonomisation du champ de la production des standards juridiques vont de pair avec la marginalisation des militants locaux. L\'activité de production de normes est l\'affaire des experts juridiques apolitiques qui entretiennent des relations de collaboration avec les notables des diplomaties d\'Etat et des organisations intergouvernementales.
Topic:: Government and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:: Africa

766. Jospin, Political Cohabitation And Left Governance

Author:: John P. Willerton and Martin Carrier
Publication Date:: 06-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: This article illuminates the record of the Gauche Plurielle (GP) and Jospin-led coalition government-built upon a diverse parliamentary majority opposed by a sitting president-to construct a coherent political program and realize unanticipated policy-making achievements. Contrary to past cohabitation regimes and most Fifth Republic presidential-prime ministerial teams composed of officials from the same political party, the 1997-2002 Gauche Plurielle government retained power for its entire five-year elected mandate while advancing an aggressive domestic socio-economic agenda. The GP program, which Lionel Jospin termed a "réalisme de gauche," would combine Socialist Party (PS) commitments to social justice with economic growth and Communist Party (PCF) concerns over a heightened minimum wage and serious youth employment efforts. The allied Greens and other Left factions would be provided the opportunity to win seats in the National Assembly (in the Greens' case, for the first time) with an ability to influence policy making in their areas of special interest. Overall, the early years of the Left-Greens coalition would see the construction of major initiatives upon which all partners generally agreed, with pressures on the coalition becoming more evident in subsequent years as hard policy choices-reflective of the dominant PS-increasingly troubled the smaller partners.
Topic:: Government, Politics, and Governance

767. A Case for Government-Sponsored Monitoring of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis in the United States

Author:: Aaron D. Levine
Publication Date:: 05-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a modified version of in vitro fertilization in which individual embryos are screened for specific genetic characteristics prior to implantation, provides a powerful way for parents suffering from infertility to increase their chances of having healthy children. In its various forms, PGD allows parents to screen for gender, providing a means for avoiding X-linked diseases, chromosomal abnormalities, such as translocations and aneuploidies, and single-gene disorders. Beyond these standard uses, PGD could potentially be used to select for any genetic trait, and this aspect of the technology has raised concerns that it may be used either intentionally or unintentionally for eugenic purposes. At present, reproductive medicine is only loosely regulated in the United States and new technologies, such as PGD, are almost entirely unregulated. This paper argues that given the lack of consensus regarding the ethical acceptability of PGD and embryo selection techniques, the government has an interest in gathering and reporting data on the use of PGD in the United States. Taking a proactive role now, rather than allowing the use of PGD to continue growing unscrutinized, will give society the chance to make thoughtful and deliberate decisions about its use.
Topic:: Government, Science and Technology, Medicine, Reproductive Health, and Genetics
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

768. An Extremism of the Center? Jean-Pierre Chevènement, French Presidential Candidate, 2002

Author:: Sharif Gemie
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: There are few politicians who can claim that they have, literally, come back from the dead. Jean-Pierre Chevènement can make a still more dramatic declaration: He is a man who has been reborn twice. Chevènement was the French minister of the Interior from 1997-2000, in the last Jospin government. In October 1998 he was admitted to hospital for a routine gall-bladder operation. Following a complication in the anaesthetic procedure, his heart stopped beating for forty-five minutes. He fell into a deep coma that lasted for three weeks, during which he drifted in a muffled, foggy world inhabited by strange beasts, as he later recalled.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France

769. European Integration in the Light of the International Relations Theories

Author:: Sinem Akgül Açikmese
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This article contends that most of the intellectual work on European integration reflect major dichotomies between the theories of International Relations. During the first few decades of the integration process, the core European integration debate involved idealism-oriented neo-functionalists and realism-oriented intergovernmentalist approaches; whereas the current scholarship on European integration mirrors the main division that has emerged within the discipline of International Relations since 1980's between rationalists regarding the integration process as the products conscious member states' behaviour and constructivists focusing on policy-formation based on norms and common values. The main purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of European integration within the context of the traditional and contemporary debates of International Relations. Since the sui generis nature of the integration process in the shape of the European Union constitutes a barrier to theorizing efforts in general terms, this article argues that each theory can only explain some pieces of the integration puzzle.
Topic:: Government and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Europe

770. Reform of the EC Competition Law and Analysis of the Modifications Achieved

Author:: Ercüment Tezcan
Publication Date:: 06-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: The modernization of the application of the competition law of the European Community (EC) was carried out by the Council Regulation 1/2003 of December 16, 2002. This Regulation has repealed the regulation 17/62 of 16 February 1962 in force for more than 40 years. The Regulation 1/2003 is characterized by the abrogation of the notification and the preliminary authorization and its decentralization attempt for the application of the competition law of the EC. The national authorities and jurisdictions will be qualified from now on in this field by legal exception. Besides various details, the most important aspect of the new regulation is its gradual decentralization of the EC competition law, which should be considered within a broader framework of the reforms on the EC competition law, undertaken in the second half of 1990's.
Topic:: Government, Markets, and Reform
Political Geography:: Europe

771. 17 octobre 1961 - 17 octobre 2001: une commémoration ambiguë

Author:: Brigitte Jelen
Publication Date:: 03-2002
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: A few months ago, the massacre of Algerian civilians by the French police on October 17, 1961 was finally officially recognized, as the new socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, placed a commemorative plaque on the Pont Saint-Michel. In his declaration to the press, Delanoë was careful to focus on the "Parisian" character of this ceremony, although the 1961 massacre was committed by the French national police. Perhaps Delanoë's noble and courageous gesture hides an ambiguity, an injustice to the victims? In order to understand the symbolic importance of this plaque in the construction of France's official memory of the Algerian war, this essay analyzes how the French government since 1962 has attempted to "forget" the conflict in the name of "national unity," in particular through the use of amnesty laws. In a discussion on forgiveness inspired by J. Derrida, the possibility of a French national memory of the Algerian war (and of the October 17, 1961 event) that would include the voices of the victims is considered.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Paris and France

772. Policy Activism In A Globalized Economy: France's 35-hour Workweek

Author:: Gunnar Trumbull
Publication Date:: 09-2002
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: Globalization is commonly thought to impede policy activism. Yet France's 35-hour workweek initiative demonstrates that globalization can, in certain circumstances, create incentives for greater policy activism. This is because economic actors experience globalization differently. The French government, facing fiscal and monetary constraints, was seeking alternative means for promoting employment. French employers, facing new foreign competition, increasingly valued workforce flexibility. And French labor unions, facing declining membership, were anxious to establish a bridgehead in new sectors of the economy. These diverse pressures of globalization, felt differently by different economic actors, created the context in which an activist labor policy could be negotiated.
Topic:: Economics and Government

773. Identity and Democracy

Author:: Ellen Badone
Publication Date:: 09-2002
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: This thought-provoking essay analyses the changing relationships between the French state and the individual. The author contends that French republican democracy originally developed as a bulwark against the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church. However, in the secularized context of present-day France, such protection is no longer necessary. Hence, democracy has lost much of its original meaning. In the past, political actors privileged the collective good above private interests and identités. Now, however, it is precisely these agendas that have come to dominate French political discourse. In the face of competing minority demands, government must remain neutral and can no longer serve as the moral arbiter for the collectivity.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France and Romania

774. Dangerous Liaisons in 1940s Quebec: Vichy or la France libre

Author:: Robert Schwartzwald
Publication Date:: 03-2001
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: It may come as a surprise to American readers that during the Second World War, both the Vichy regime and la France libre cared deeply about public opinion in French Canada. Yet resource-rich Canada was Britain's principal ally against Nazi Germany before the collapse of the Hitler-Stalin pact and the attack on Pearl Harbor. If public opinion in English-speaking Canada rallied immediately behind Great Britain and was solidly interventionist, this was not the case in Quebec. In his study, Montreal historian Eric Amyot demonstrates that the opposing French camps well understood the necessity of waging a war for public opinion in the largely French-speaking province. At stake were Canadian government policy and the respective claims for legitimacy of Vichy and la France libre both at home and on the world stage.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Britain and France

775. Les élections locales françaises de mars 2001: un échec pour la majorité

Author:: Gérard Grunberg
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: The local elections of spring 2001 constituted a defeat for the Socialist government. The outcome of these elections in large and medium-sized cities show significant losses for the Left––despite Socialist victories in Paris and Lyon––and especially for the Communists whose numbers continue to decline. The only left-wing party to improve its position was the Green Party. These results do not reflect a clear rejection of the government by the public, but they outline two reasons for the Left to worry: First, although polls seemed to be favorable to the Left, the elections' disappointing outcome shifted the political climate in a way that benefits the Right. While the Left was politically destablilized, the election results boosted the opposition's morale and Jacques Chirac now felt confident in taking the offensive in his race for the presidency. Second, the election results––more specifically the analysis of how votes shifted between the two rounds––reveal two developments: The Right did a better job than the Left at mobilizing its potential voters for the second round; and in the context of the National Front schism, more far-right voters than in the past voted for moderate-right candidates. Such trends suggest that the 2002 elections will be a challenge for a more divided and instable "gauche plurielle." The local elections of 2001 moved the Left from the role of favorite to that of challenger.
Topic:: Government

776. The Sudden Memory of Torture: The Algerian War in French Discourse, 2000-2001

Author:: William B. Cohen
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: During the Algerian War successive governments denied that they employed torture in the conduct of the conflict. The French public during the war and thereafter were, however, well informed on the brutal means used in the North African conflict. In the summer of 2000 an Algerian woman tortured by the French gave an interview to Le monde. The publicity surrounding this interview and a subsequent interview given by General Aussaresses, head of the secret operations in Algeria, created a public furor over France\'s record in Algeria. In a much publicized petition, some of those who had opposed the Algerian war asked the French government to issue an apology for its acts. France\'s political leaders balked, refusing to take such a step. As a result of the furor created in 2000-2001 there was a greater sense of consciousness of the darkest sides of French colonialism. If the French government eventually does issue a public apology, it will largely be as a result of the dramatic debates of the last year.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France and North Africa

777. Torturante mémoire

Author:: Christian Delacampagne
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: The regular use of torture by the French army during the Algerian War raises at least two questions: 1) How was such torture made possible? Incapable of facing public opinion–– which was primarily in favor of colonization up until the end of the 1960s––the leaders of the Fourth Republic erred by giving full power to the army to crush the insurrection. It even took General De Gaulle two years to correct the situation. 2) What have we done since then to ensure that this would not happen again? As shown by the following facts, France has certainly not done what is necessary: It never formally recognized its responsibility for torture; it never tried to punish the principal culprits, whether politicians or military; it does not even seem to have learned from its past mistakes. Indeed, successive French governments continue to adopt a complacent stance towards similar practices (torture, summary executions) that consecutive Algerian governments have been covering up for several years – as if the use of torture should not be systematically condemned.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Algeria

778. Homosexuality in France

Author:: Michael Sibalis
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: Gay and lesbian studies have almost everywhere experienced an incredible rate of growth in the last decade or so, but until very recently French scholarship has lagged far behind. In particular, professional historians in France have been reticent to research the history of homosexuality, in large part because of the conservatism of the academic establishment. (Young scholars have feared that an interest in gay history would hinder their careers.) As a result, much of the existing gay history of France has been produced by "Anglo-Saxons" (as the French call anyone who speaks or writes in English), and to the extent that "gay studies" have made their appearance in France, it is journalists, sociologists, and legal scholars rather than historians who have led the way.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France

779. Of Linguistic Jacobinism And Cultural Balkanization: Contemporary French Linguistic Politics in Historical Context

Author:: Paul Cohen
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: In few countries has language played a greater role in constituting national identity than in modern France. French is first and foremost a political idiom, enshrined by the leaders of the Revolution and the Third Republic as the language of the Republic and the Nation. The French state promotes the use of French at home and throughout the world through an array of government institutions, including the Académie française, the Ministry of Culture and the agencies responsible for France's francophonie policies. The French language also represents a highly charged common cultural ground marking the boundaries of French society.3 Whether in informal conversation and public debate, in annual rituals like Bernard Pivot's televised "concours de dictées," or on the editorial pages of national newspapers, the French betray an intense awareness of linguistic issues. The defense and illustration of French has long been for French intellectuals and leaders a passionate vocation.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France

780. Gérard Noiriel's Third Republic

Author:: Robert O. Paxton
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: Gérard Noiriel, Les Origines républicaines de Vichy (Paris: Hachette Littératures, 1999). This book has raised hackles in France, and one can see why. It is by turns illuminating, tendentious, and pugnacious. At its best it accomplishes first-rate historical work. Its central four chapters make an enduring contribution to understanding the exclusionary project of Vichy France. Polemical first and last chapters detract somewhat from this achievement. Noiriel's powerful central chapters address a key conundrum about Vichy: How did the odious discriminatory and exclusionary measures taken by Pétain's governments, so manifestly contrary to French republican values, find such broad acquiescence among the mainstream republican elite?
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: France

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS