Search results for "Political Science and International Relation"

Review of ‘Liminal sovereignty practices’

2020

Performing the national territory: The geography of national-day celebrations

2017

The nation is a relatively abstract imagined community that is visualised through a variety of symbols as well as communicative and performative practices. In this paper, we explore how the national territory, one of the foundations of the nation-state, is performed on national-day celebrations and brings the nation into being. Drawing on ethnographic research on national days in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, we show how the state's internal administrative divisions and ethnic differences are at once made explicit but also subordinated to the nation. Moreover, we show how in such celebrations, potentially disruptive or competing affiliations such as ethnicity and regional loyalties…

Animal liberation, American anti-terrorist culture and Denis Hennelly’sBold Native

2016

ABSTRACTSince its birth in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the animal liberation movement has attempted to expose the transnational, global character of speciecism and institutionalised forms of exploitation. Within the American panorama, however, the “war against terror” following 9/11 had such a profound effect on (radical) activism at a legal and legislative level that the movement found itself in the position of having to reassess their focus, leading to theoretical and aesthetic responses to anti-terrorist rhetoric. The aim of this article is (1) to examine the manner by which anti-terrorist rhetoric affected the movement and how the movement appropriated such rhetoric to re…

Speech technology as an experimental science: towards the comparative dynamics of Sprechkunde in Germany and Russia in the late nineteenth to early t…

2016

The article examines various resonances of the “speech technology” (Sprechkunde) current in German and Russian-Soviet context of 1900–1920s. It contains first of all a brief history of the techniques of speech in Germany, an inquiry into some psychophysical sources of the “speech technology” and a survey of the contribution of German “new rhetoric” to this movement. The Russian counterparts of this trend include the Institute of the Living Word (Institut živogo slova, 1918–1923), some Russian formalists, the scenic speech specialists and the theatre pedagogues. The conclusion summarises the historical significance of “speech technology” and its common features in Germany and Russia. It turn…

Was Frank Knight an institutionalist?

2005

This paper critically examines Geoffrey Hodgson's recent provocative claim about Frank Knight as being a member of American institutionalism in the interwar years. In the first section of the paper the authors attempt to provide a definition of institutionalism and to emphasize its meaning from a historiographic point of view. The second and third sections analyze the two main methodological struggles between Knight and the institutionalists, namely, the debate during the early 1020s over the use of instinct theory as an explanation of economic behavior, and the subsequent campaign led by Knight in the late 1920s and early 1930s against the behaviorist wing of American institutionalism à la…

The consolidation of post‐autocratic democracies: A multi‐level model

1998

The mainstream of theoretical and empirical ‘consolidology’ speaks of consolidated and non‐consolidated democracies. This crude dichotomy does not allow for more differentiated judgments about the stage of consolidation of newly democratized political systems. To overcome this shortcoming, a multi‐level model of democratic consolidation is proposed, consisting of four interdependent levels. The particular configuration of each has specific impact on the consolidation of the other levels. The four levels are: constitutional, representative, behavioural, and civic cultural consolidation. This model helps us to understand why new democracies survive or collapse, to identify the degree to which…

The Hidden Counterpoint of Spanish Federalism: Recentralization and Resymmetrization in Spain (1978–2008)

2010

The recent evolution of the Spanish ‘State of Autonomies’ has given rise to numerous political and academic criticisms, which argue that the initial federal logic of the system is giving way to a confederal logic that threatens the cohesion of the state. This article contradicts the negative diagnosis, outlining the main mechanisms that retain and in fact reinforce the powers of federalization in tandem with the fundamental political decentralization process that has taken place since 1978. This paper focuses on three critical areas: the distribution of legislative power, the fiscal system and the dynamics of the political process. In these three areas powerful mechanisms are at work reinfo…

Repeated Multiparty Elections Expand Civil Liberties

2008

Democracy and Elections in Africa. By I. Lindberg Staffan. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 248 pp., $55.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-8018-8332-3), $24.95 paper (ISBN: 0-8018-8333-0). Democracy and multiparty elections are high on the agendas of many international actors, human rights groups, and African governments. Although the possibilities for free association, monitoring the use of power, and electoral competition have increased, electoral fraud and political violence are prevalent in many African countries. As a result, democratization remains a critical area for researchers and practitioners interested in African affairs. It is, therefore, exciting to come across a book that…

“If you compress the spring, it will snap back hard”: The Ukrainian crisis and the balance of threat theory

2014

The narrative of an aggressive and neo-imperialist Russia that has dominated analyses of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis lacks theoretical rigour. We argue that a sustainable transformation of the Ukrainian crisis requires an accurate analysis of the context of the conflict, which should include an understanding of Moscow’s perception of the threats to its interests. This policy brief develops a theoretical understanding of the Ukrainian crisis through the lens of Stephen M. Walt’s balance of threat theory. We conclude that a realist analysis will help to explain Russian actions.

European elections in eight new EU member states

2005

Cheng, K.C., 2003. Growth and recovery in Mongolia during transition. Working Paper 03/217,International Monetary Fund.Freedom House. 2004. Freedom in the world. !http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2004/table2004.pdfO.Globe International, 2004. Free and fair: a report on research conducted among media outlets and theelectorate. Globe International, Ulan Bator.Soros Foundation, 2004. Report on the 2004 electoral campaign (in Mongolian). Soros Foundation, UlanBator.doi: 10.1016/j.electstud.2005.03.003