The defence of territory and local struggle for more democracy in post-war Guatemala

Twenty years since the signing of the Peace Accords, shifts have taken place in Guatemala’s landscape of collective struggles for democracy. Instead of the historical peasant movements or the civil society organizations based in Guatemala City that dominated collective action in the context of the Accords, over the past decade local, rural nodes of resistance to neo-liberal policies have consolidated as the most sustained attempts to instil a democratizing impetus. In the context of Guatemala’s post-war state, captured by legal and illegal elite factions, this rural agency is directed primarily towards the municipal and community level. It is framed around the defence of territory and emerges on the basis of local meanings and practices. By analysing the case of an organizational process promoted by indigenous communities in Guatemala’s northern highlands, I argue for paying attention to these organizational patterns despite their limited geographical projection. I derive the importance of this collective agency from their attempts to transcend a purely antagonistic stance by reconfiguring local political interactions and making their immediate surroundings more democratic.     

公民社会与拉美国家政治转型研究

公民社会在拉美国家的政治转型过程中发挥了重要作用:圣保罗论坛和世界社会论坛已成为拉美政治左转的思想高地;天主教会仍是最能影响和控制人的思想和行为的公民社会组织,其在历次政治转型中发挥的作用不可低估,尤其在"还政于民"过程中的推动作用不可忽视;土著人组织通过其政治参与使国家政权更具包容性,民主参与机制更为广泛,是拉美政治转型的直接推动力之一;社会运动、妇女、学生等其他弱势群体也是拉美政治改革和转型的积极推动者。此外,公民社会还包括个人和家庭等社会细胞,其经济和教育水平的提高为拉美国家的政治转型提供了社会基础。     

Safe Territories and Violent Political Organizations

This article assesses how the concept of safe territory can expand our understanding of the persistence of, and eventual disengagement from, violence by violent political organizations. The explanatory utility of this concept is demonstrated through an analysis of the cycles of political violence perpetrated by the Red Brigades in Italy and the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. This work offers two main illustrative hypotheses. First, the opportunities provided by safe territories are not necessarily conducive to the continuation of political violence, although they facilitate its persistence over a long period of time. Second, the presence of safe territories, regardless of the ideology of the violent political organization, tends to enforce disengagement from political violence at the group, rather than the individual, level. Finally, the analytical intent in introducing the concept of safe territory is to contribute to spatial understandings of political violence.     

Security governance in a comparative regional perspective

This article aims to explore the relationship between domestic economic and political conditions and the performance of 14 regional organizations over a range of security provisions. It argues that the willingness of member states to increase the range of security provisions of a regional organization is influenced by the combination of high levels of economic and political development and low levels of dispersion among the members of a regional organization. In order to evaluate this assumption, two aspects of regional organizations are explored. The first is to examine the development of security governance provisions of 14 regional organizations as well as the levels of empowerment or autonomy of those organizations. The second is to analyze how six economic and political variables influence the range of security provisions and the degree of empowerment of regional organizations. The final part of the article examines how regional organizations play a significant role in stimulating and reproducing regional governance orders.     

Daring to Be Heard: Advertorials by Organized Interests on the Op-Ed Page of The New York Times , 1985-1998

Advertorials are a form of outside lobbying that organized interests use to influence policymakers and attentive publics. It is apparent from their popularity that organized interests consider them to be an effective form of political communication. This article analyzes 2,805 organized interest advertorials that appeared on the lower right quadrant of The New York Times op-ed page from 1985 to 1998. Advertorials take two broad forms: (a) image advertorials, which are paid messages by organized interests designed to create a favorable climate of opinion, and (b) advocacy advertorials, which are sponsored messages intended to win support for an interest's viewpoints on controversial issues. Typologies of advertorials (11 categories), organized interests (21 categories), corporate and noncorporate economic interests (29 categories), and policy content (28 categories) are used to document annually and over time who is sponsoring advertorials, what types of advertorials are being used, what interests avail themselves of advertorial campaigns, which issue areas are receiving attention, what images and policy messages are being communicated, which organizations sponsor the most advertorials, and the timing of such political advertising campaigns. We find over time an increasing number of advertorials, an increasing number and diversity of sponsoring interest organizations, an increasing trend toward advocacy advertorials, a continuing but declining sponsorship dominance by corporate interests, a shifting policy issue emphasis that corresponds to events in the political environment, and evidence that organized interests employ a variety of sponsorship strategies.     

Symbolic reflections of the environmental crisis: Some International Implications

In the present age of burgeoning population growth, world‐wide famine, worsening energy crises, and natural resource depletion, two realizations have become evident: the earth's resources are finite; and the world community is very interdependent. This finity, the interrelatedness, and their implications for the global environment can be studied by using three models: (1) the environmental crisis model, depicting the impact linkages between crisis areas; (2) an international feedback model, illustrating possible repercussions on the international political system if restorative‐preventive environmental measures are procrastinated; and (3) the United Nations machinery model, setting out the functional apparatus designed to deal with the eco‐crisis on a global scale.

We have reached an environmental cross‐roads‐a time for deliberate decision‐making and policy implementation. We must accomplish a readjustment of social, economic, and technical priorities and perspectives‐in short, a functional approach where national governments and international organizations act in concert to restore and safeguard the human environment.     

Human rights and religious backlash: the experience of a Bangladeshi NGO

As part of a human rights education campaign, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee fixed 700,000 posters throughout Bangladesh. This met with opposition from the religious organizations. This paper investigates the nature and cause of the backlash and sets out strategies for how development organizations can achieve their objectives in the face of opposition. The opposition was found to be in response to interpretations of the posters based on the Holy Koran and Islamic practices, and a perceived intrusion into the professional territory of religious organizations, which affected the socioeconomic interests of these organizations' representatives. It was therefore concluded that development organizations should pre-empt such opposition by spelling out their objectives to potential critics, and formulating programs that do not provide scope for opponents to undermine their development activities.     

From victorious rebels to strong authoritarian parties: prospects for post-war democratization

ABSTRACT

In a number of cases, rebel movements that won civil wars transformed into powerful authoritarian political parties that dominated post-war politics. Parties whose origins are as victorious insurgent groups have different legacies and hence different institutional structures and patterns of behaviour than those that originated in breakaway factions of ruling parties, labour unions, non-violent social movements, or identity groups. Unlike classic definitions of political parties, post-rebel parties are not created around the need to win elections but rather as military organizations focused on winning an armed struggle. Key attributes of victorious rebel movements, such as cohesive leadership, discipline, hierarchy, and patterns of military administration of liberated territory, shape post-insurgent political parties and help explain why post-insurgent parties are often strong and authoritarian. This article seeks to identify the mechanisms that link rebel victory in three East African countries (Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda) to post-war authoritarian rule. These processes suggest that how a civil war ends changes the potential for post-war democratization.     

Democratization and the politicization of religious civil society in Turkey

In this article, we explain how the political opportunity structure characterized by official secularism and state regulation of religion has shaped the politicization of religiously oriented civil society in Turkey. The ban on religious political parties and strict state control over religious institutions create constraints for the expression of religious interests. However, due to changes in laws regulating the civil society sector and rule by a religiously sympathetic political party, religious groups use associations and foundations to express their interests. We observe that, in this strictly controlled opportunity structure, religiously oriented Muslims have framed their religious interests in the political realm parallel to those of the dominant political party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Through a study of non-governmental organizations we document the rhetoric religious groups use to frame their position on several key issues: religious freedom for the majority religious group, methods of resolving issues related to minority populations, and the Ottoman heritage of charitable service.     

The Economic Leverage of International Organizations in Interstate Disputes

Addressing a long-standing debate in international relations scholarship, this study shows that international governmental organizations (IGOs) with high economic leverage over their member states, such as some development banks, substantially lower the risk that political disputes experience the use of military force. Empirical tests covering cases of disputatious claims and international crises since 1946 make use of a new classification of IGOs that have economic leverage and use it toward increasing states’ cost of using force in disputes. When pairs of states are subject to the economic leverage of IGOs, they are substantially less likely to use force. For the understanding and practice of interstate dispute resolution and international conflict more generally, the study suggests a specific linkage between institutionalized economic interdependence and conflict escalation.     

Civil society and the European common security and defence policy

The involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) is widely regarded by students of the EU's domestic policy fields as enhancing transparency and accountability and, more generally, the democratic quality of political processes. This article explores the contribution of CSOs to the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy and assesses whether a democracy-enhancing effect of their involvement can also be demonstrated for this policy field. We analyse the contribution of CSOs based on two common models of democracy: the intergovernmental and the supranational model of democracy. We find that CSOs are indeed quite actively involved in the EU's security policy. With regard to their democracy-enhancing effects, however, our findings are rather mixed. While the engagement of CSOs does provide a remedy for the democratic deficits associated with intergovernmental decision-making, these organizations do not fully meet the demands posed by supranational governance.     

Rootless Russia: Kaliningrad — Status and Identity

Kaliningrad, a penurious exclave on the Baltic Sea, geographically separated from Russia and the Confederation of Independent States, remains a largely ignored legacy of World War II. The imminent accession of Lithuania and Poland into the European Union underscores the anomaly of its situation. Disproportionate militarization and neglect in Soviet times left a graphic legacy of social and economic decay. Many principal questions remain to be settled: the status and role of the territory, its relationship with Russia, with the surrounding region, and with the European Union as a whole. These issues are greatly compounded by the lack among its residents of a clear historically formed self-perception. However, a new local identity appears to be germinating.

The absence of experience among Moscow bureaucrats with genuine federalism and their instinctive distrust of decentralization has so far only produced stillborn solutions of the problem of the status and role of the territory within the Russian Federation. The expansion of the European Union in the region presents an imperative for Russia to determine its future relationship with the Union. In so doing, Russia also needs to redefine itself. The eventual emergence of some unorthodox form of genuine local autonomy of the territory seems likely. Its appearance may serve as a catalyst for positive political development in Russia.     

试析21世纪初金三角地区替代发展及其面临的挑战

替代发展是一种以可持续的合法经济替代毒品经济的长期经济发展战略。替代发展以相关国家政府与国际组织的长期政治、经济承诺为前提,针对毒品作物种植地区的贫困人群,借助因地制宜的经济发展方式推动区域经济的可持续发展,从而根除毒品作物种植以及毒品经济赖以存续的基础。随着金三角地区"替代发展"的深入展开,部分负面因素也随之凸显,其中缅北跨界民族武装的负面影响以及该地区罂粟种植的反弹趋势不容小觑。     

Rootless Russia: Kaliningrad — Status and Identity

Kaliningrad, a penurious exclave on the Baltic Sea, geographically separated from Russia and the Confederation of Independent States, remains a largely ignored legacy of World War II. The imminent accession of Lithuania and Poland into the European Union underscores the anomaly of its situation. Disproportionate militarization and neglect in Soviet times left a graphic legacy of social and economic decay. Many principal questions remain to be settled: the status and role of the territory, its relationship with Russia, with the surrounding region, and with the European Union as a whole. These issues are greatly compounded by the lack among its residents of a clear historically formed self-perception. However, a new local identity appears to be germinating.

The absence of experience among Moscow bureaucrats with genuine federalism and their instinctive distrust of decentralization has so far only produced stillborn solutions of the problem of the status and role of the territory within the Russian Federation. The expansion of the European Union in the region presents an imperative for Russia to determine its future relationship with the Union. In so doing, Russia also needs to redefine itself. The eventual emergence of some unorthodox form of genuine local autonomy of the territory seems likely. Its appearance may serve as a catalyst for positive political development in Russia.     

Is democracy about redistribution?

Some scholars champion broad conceptualizations of democracy where distribution of economic resources is an integral part, whereas several prominent arguments drawing on narrower conceptualizations of democracy still assume that progressive redistribution is central to democratic politics. We empirically analyse individual opinions on whether progressive taxation and redistribution are among democracy's central characteristics. While many citizens around the world associate democracy with redistribution, we find that surprisingly few consider redistribution among the most central characteristics of democracy. We further analyse what factors affect individuals’ propensity to consider redistribution among democracy's most important features. Running multi-level models, we find that having lived under a communist regime and ? although less robust – currently living under democracy make individuals less likely to hold this notion. However, individuals with more to gain from progressive redistribution (that is, little education and belonging to lower classes) are more likely to hold it. We discuss how our findings help shed light on two puzzles in comparative politics; (I) why do democracies not promote more redistributive policies than autocracies, and (II) why is there no net relationship between income inequality and democratization?     

The Diplomacy of Business

The “new” global capitalism is transforming the ways in which commerce is conducted and organized. Business enterprises have to perform and compete in a largely unregulated global market economy if they are to survive, let alone prosper, and contend with higher levels of financial and political risks. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have come to occupy a pivotal position in the world economy, commanding immense financial resources and employing tens of thousands throughout the world, and are active participants in global political and economic affairs. TNC executives—the global corporate elite—crisscross the planet as they manage local, national, and international relationships, and represent and advance their global interests in myriad international conferences and meetings. TNCs are now interacting with states and international governmental organizations on a broad array of issues and problems (many far removed from the core business). As global actors with distinct and clear interests, they have had to develop their own representational mechanisms to manage the complex relationships that mark today's global system.     

The Diplomacy of Business

The “new” global capitalism is transforming the ways in which commerce is conducted and organized. Business enterprises have to perform and compete in a largely unregulated global market economy if they are to survive, let alone prosper, and contend with higher levels of financial and political risks. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have come to occupy a pivotal position in the world economy, commanding immense financial resources and employing tens of thousands throughout the world, and are active participants in global political and economic affairs. TNC executives—the global corporate elite—crisscross the planet as they manage local, national, and international relationships, and represent and advance their global interests in myriad international conferences and meetings. TNCs are now interacting with states and international governmental organizations on a broad array of issues and problems (many far removed from the core business). As global actors with distinct and clear interests, they have had to develop their own representational mechanisms to manage the complex relationships that mark today’s global system.     

Coercive or Corrosive: The Negative Impact of Economic Sanctions on Democracy

This article seeks to analyze the impact that sanctions have on democracy. We argue that economic sanctions worsen the level of democracy because the economic hardship caused by sanctions can be used as a strategic tool by the targeted regime to consolidate authoritarian rule and weaken the opposition. Furthermore, we argue that economic sanctions create new incentives for the political leadership to restrict political liberties, to undermine the challenge of sanctions as an external threat to their authority. Using time-series cross-national data (1972–2000), the findings show that both the immediate and longer‐term effects of economic sanctions significantly reduce the level of democratic freedoms in the target. The findings also demonstrate that comprehensive economic sanctions have greater negative impact than limited sanctions. These findings suggest that sanctions can create negative externalities by reducing the political rights and civil liberties in the targeted state.     

Greece: Twenty years of political terrorism

From the mid‐1970s to the present, Greece has been suffering a systematic terrorist assault on her political and socieo‐economic institutions‐mainly at the hands of the 17 November and ELA, intransigent communist organizations. During these two decades, the Greek state has failed to make a correct diagnosis of the problem. This article traces the long history of terrorism during this period and enables the reader to understand how the phenomenon was allowed to grow so uncontrollably that it has now become a permenant feature of contemporary Greek political culture. The author concludes that the Greek terrorists will continue their violent campaign attacking the people and institutions they despise for several years to come‐at least until Greece's established political clas takes a clear‐cut stand and effective measures to oppose and resolve this seemingly intractable problem     

Managing Asylum and European Integration: Expanding Spheres of Exclusion?

During the last decade, thhe European Union intensified its efforts to define its external borders in conjunction with its efforts to evolve into a coherent, frontier-free political territory. European policy-makers slowly shaped new norms and rules pertaining to asylum, with increasingly stronger mechanisms to enforce the policy decisions. In the case of asylum and refugee protection, Europe's efforts are nested in the broad global institutional framework negotiated through and carried out by international organizations. However, these developments raise the specter of deteriorating refugee protection in Europe and beyond. This article reviews the norms and rules on which the post–World War II refugee protection regime rests and then points to the recent developments in refugee protection in Europe, which might undermine the goals of the global refugee protection.