Towards the Mainstream? UKIP and the 2009 Elections to the European Parliament

This article examines the performance of the UK Independence party (UKIP) at the 2009 European Parliament election, and asks whether the party's second-place finish indicates that it is now entering the political mainstream. It argues that while UKIP's success at these elections marks an important step in its development, the party continues to face significant barriers to further electoral progress. The article also considers the implications for the Conservative party under David Cameron, and cautions that UKIP's success could signal a more generalised shift towards the acceptance of the populist right in Britain. Finally, the article argues that the rise and recent success of UKIP is deserving of greater academic attention, and outlines possible research agendas to take this work forward.     

Revitalizing and de-territorializing fascism in the 1950s: the extreme right in France and Italy,and the pan-national (‘European’) imaginary

ABSTRACT

In this article Mammone explores a still relatively neglected story in the history of post-war neo-fascism, notably the attempts by some French and Italian right-wing extremists to revitalize fascist ideology after the war by means of two interconnected strategies, namely, radicalization (rejection of the democratic system) and ‘de-territorialization’ (in the sense of converting narrow fascist nationalism into pan-European nationalism). Mammone describes these project(s), as well as the influence of thinkers such as Julius Evola and Maurice Bardèche, and their location in the wider ideological context of the extreme right in the 1950s. The immediate outcome of this ‘de-territorialized fascism’ was the creation of an extreme-right international association, the Mouvement Social Européen, in which French and Italian activists played a central role. Mammone breaks new ground regarding the non-national dimension of extreme-right thought, a topic too often studied within the boundaries of a given geographical territory and nationalist ideological landscape. By utilizing a transnational framework, he also shows the continuous connections and interactions between the Italian and the French extreme rights.     

What's the big deal? Naturalisation and the politics of desire

This article takes the naturalisation process as a vantage point to consider how citizenship constitutes a site of emotional investment not only on the part of applicants and ‘new’ citizens but also on the part of the state. The premise of this article is that naturalisation is more than solely the admission of foreigners to the position and rights of citizenship, and it approaches naturalisation as a state practice that needs to be understood within a politics of desire. The article asks three questions: what makes naturalisation a thinkable and desirable means of acquiring citizenship? Second, what do practices of naturalisation tell us about ‘the state's attachment to particular embodiments of desirable citizens’ (S. Somerville, 2005 Somerville, S., 2005. Notes toward a queer history of naturalization. American quarterly, 7 (3), 659–675.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Notes toward a queer history of naturalization. American quarterly, 7 (3), 661)? Third, ‘who may desire the state's desire’ (J. Butler, 2002. Is kinship always already heterosexual? Differences, 13 (1), 22)? Using policy documents and auto-ethnographic material, the article examines practices through which the state selects its own objects of desire and produces them as citizens, while it also produces itself as desirable. The article concludes that naturalisation distinguishes desirable from less desirable citizens through fantasies of English proficiency and birthright citizenship. In addition, the staged performance of the citizenship ceremony assures the state of its desirability by subsuming ‘as if’ enactments of citizenship.     

Microenterprise development and the entreprenurial poor: including the excluded?

Microenterprise develpment has received much attention as being a participatory strategy that can potentially alleviate poverty by including the excluded in the process of development. But recent controversies regarding the purposes, processes and profitability of alternative microenterprise development techniques suggest that participation means different things to different people. A review of three types of microenterprise development institutions suggests that while some programme policies discourage participation, others encourage ‘inclusion’ only in token. Only a few programmes support genuine participation of the entreprenurial poor. Key policy issues related to the participatory principles, benefits and costs of microenterprise development are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intelligence and the Media: The Press,Government Secrecy and the ‘Buster’ Crabb Affair

This article explores the official cover up of the mysterious disappearance of naval frogman Lionel Buster Crabb in 1956. Existing histories of the affair have tended to focus on the manner of Crabb's death, advancing a series of plausible and suitably implausible explanations. Using recently declassified sources, this article, in contrast, seeks to use the Crabb affair as a window onto government secrecy and relations between the press and the intelligence services. It is argued that the affair was a climacteric for the intelligence community and its relationship with Fleet Street, rupturing long-standing taboos about secret service work and bringing to the fore a brand of investigative journalist determined to make front-page news of intelligence shortcomings and failure.     

Economic Growth and Changes in the Branch Structure of Economy in Latvia： Linkage and the Sequence

From 2000 to 2012 the Latvian economy experienced four important events： （1） accession to the European Union in 2004; （2） the fastest GDP growth in the European Union and one of the fastest in the world in 2006; （3） the fastest GDP decrease in the European Union and in the world in 2009; and （4） resumption of economic growth in 2011. Such substantial changes during relatively short period of time make the experience of Latvia interesting in context of economic growth. Now Latvia has success in overcoming the consequences of the global economic downturn but the question which still remains relevant is the rationality of the branch structure of economy, because of high share of non-tradable sector in GDP. Such high fluctuations of the GDP during period analyzed, as well as requirements of the modem economy show the necessity to provide changes in the branch structure of economy. The most acceptable and popular direction in accordance with the strategy ＂Europe 2020＂ indicates that these changes should be in favor to the innovative manufacturing branches. On the other hand, the question--whether the changes in the branch structure of economy would be a tool for maintaining and providing the economic growth in Latvia--is actual. The importance and relevance of this question are reinforced by the fact that there is no consensus in the literature about the sequence of the economic growth and changes in the branch structure of economy. The article considers the linkage between economic growth and the changes in the branch structure of economy in Latvia, as well as search for sequence between these processes.     

Feminist thought and the totalitarian interloper: on rhetoric and the fear of ‘dangerous thinking’

Starting from the premise that thinking in itself cannot be dangerous, but that the presentation of thought as public communication can be an occasion to debate the potentialities of an intervention, this article addresses feminist theoretical disputes as rhetorical exchange. The focus is the now well-known critique that Martha Nussbaum made of Judith Butler’s work, a critique to which some have responded by questioning in turn Nussbaum’s certainties regarding what feminism is and should be. This article addresses the highly inflammatory terms and frames of reference of these exchanges. It asks: how is that those who are understood as leading feminist theorists can be read as dangerous collaborators with evil and those who defend normative theories of social justice can be read as fascistic? The article explores these questions by relating them to the ‘dangerous’ accusation that has been levied elsewhere (that is, in relation to the utilization of post-structuralist theory) and notices as crucial the terms of reference and versions of historical memory that are evoked, in particular those that evoke the history of totalitarianism and the figure of the fascist. The article argues that there are many routes by which to ‘explain’ the appearance of these contexts and figures but advocates a genealogical approach to understand how these contexts, fears and forms of rhetoric emerged. Concluding, the article suggests – rhetorically – that there is little comfort or gain to be had through a pretence that evil will attach itself to a particular theoretical style as if to a magnet, and little credibility to be given to one who claims the ability to see, to foresee and to comprehend the constitution of all the battles that face feminists and women, let alone democratic norms.     

‘… the Defence of the Realm and Nothing Else’: Sir Findlater Stewart,Labour Ministers and the Security Service

In May 2013, a report on the British Security Service (MI5) by Sir Samuel Findlater Stewart was released by the Cabinet Office. Dated November 1945, the report on the future organization and activities of MI5 was significant in that it defined the Service's post-war remit, accountability and relations with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), laying the groundwork of MI5's mandate until the introduction of the Security Service Act in 1989. The article also suggests that the report is significant, not just because it sheds important light on MI5's wartime and post-war role, but because it helps question existing assumptions about the relationship between the Security Service and the post-war Labour Government of Clement Attlee, often viewed as a troubled one.     

Maastricht Treaty in the Shaping and Development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy （CFSP）

For the European Union （EU）, it discusses how to deliver （great project） European unification. Motivated by the idea that the association of European countries is a far better alternative to the previous mutually confronted Europe, a project in the following decades led to the emergence of a new and unprecedented work on European soil--EU. Its present form is the product of more than 50 years of evolution of European integration, which today despite initial six Western European countries including the former main rivals Germany and France include 27 member countries of the union, as well as many other countries with candidate status for membership in the EU. Seen in the development context, the union is not a preconceived model of the association of European countries, but is the product of a complex multiple decade-long process of integration in which different actors are involved. Within this process, depending on the achieved level of integration, the union received a different shape. In its present form and name as the EU, it occurs even in the early 90s of the last century, long before it passed through small-scale forms of integration.     

Dissent,Public Space and the Politics of Citizenship: Riots and the ‘Outside Agitator’

This paper presents an historical examination of a significant period in which state authority and citizenship came together around the question of dissent in the US. Drawing on congressional records, news accounts and legal documents—and deploying theories of citizenship and space—it presents an argument about how state power and geographical space came together around the question of the ‘race riots’ that swept American cities in the late 1960s. I focus in particular on how government officials and others constituted the figure of the ‘outside agitator’ as the cause of illegitimate dissent and the subject of state intervention. Such arguments about the geography of authority and dissent were themselves interventions in the politics of citizenship. More broadly, then, the paper argues for closer attention to issues of difference—and the geography of difference—in the constitution of state power.     

The relationship between government and opposition in the bundestag and house of commons in the run‐up to the Maastricht Treaty

This article analyses modes of interaction between government and opposition in the German Bundestag and the British House of Commons in the run‐up to the Maastricht Treaty, and the implications of co‐operation or a lack thereof for the parties involved. The article is based on the premise that the government—opposition relationship is not derived solely from power relationships and institutional factors, but is also a matter of democratic legitimacy. Three indicators are used to ascertain the level of government—opposition co‐operation: the creation of parliamentary committees, information exchange and incentive management. Based on an institutional analysis and interviews with legislators, the finding is that although parties in Germany and the UK have created parliamentary committees dealing with European affairs, only in the former did the government utilise the new tool for co‐operation with the opposition, in terms of information exchange and incentive management. Consequently, informal co‐operation in Germany brought about an outcome compatible with the interests of the parties involved. By contrast, the lack of co‐operation with opposition parties in Britain led to an extreme parliamentary crisis.     

The Analysis of the Difference between the Discourse of Male and Female

1The difference of language formsMen and women's language forms are different.There were sev-eral systematic differences between men and women's versions of theindicative and i mperative verbal paradigms.For example,when awomantalked with a man,the woman …     

Marching to the Left? Programmatic Competition and the 2017 Party Manifestos

This article analyses the content of the 2017 general election manifestos, and introduces the latest estimates from the Manifesto Project to explore recent ideological movements in the British party system. It reports the changing policy emphases in Conservative and Labour manifestos and the ideological positions of the major political parties in 2017. It finds that Theresa May's party produced its most left‐wing manifesto since 1964, and that Jeremy Corbyn's party produced its most left‐wing manifesto since 1992 and the election before the advent of New Labour. The article also finds that the ideological space between the Conservatives and Labour opened up in 2017, and that Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionists published the most right‐wing manifesto.     

Calling the tune? the CIA,the British left and the Cold War, 1945–1960

During the early Cold War period the United States Government covertly engaged in a variety of attempts to influence the politics of the British left. American ‘labor diplomats’ strove to fortify anti-communist elements in the trade unions; left-wing literary intellectuals were the target of the CIA's campaign in the ‘Cultural Cold War’; Labour Party politicians became involved in CIA-sponsored ventures designed to promote greater European and Atlantic unity. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that the US ‘called the tune’ of the British left. Such a verdict overlooks internal problems in the American campaign and underestimates the complexity — and ingenuity — of the British response.     

European–Mediterranean Security and the Arab Spring: Changes and Challenges

The policy of the European Union (EU) toward the Mediterranean has undergone two main metamorphoses during the last 25 years. In 1995, it started from a collective security idea with the Barcelona Process, but due to the poor success of this collective approach, it underwent a “realist turn” with the creation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2004. The Arab Spring in 2011, by questioning authoritarianism, influenced the perception of what is recognized as a security problem and who can define it. The authoritarian rulers and their supporting security forces are now challenged by their populations, and societal circumstances are so unstable that nearly every domestic problem can be politically given a spin to become a security risk. Aside from this, violent conflicts and civil wars demand an answer from the EU. In this situation, the EU's answer to the Arab Spring does not directly respond to the changing security situation in the Mediterranean. It emphasizes domestic democracy and civil society but does not take up the potential risk discourses. Concerning violent conflicts, the EU as a community is not at all active in the region but leaves this field to its member states, NATO, the Arab League, and the United Nations. Thus, the perceptions, ideas, and needs of Mediterranean security between the EU and the Southern partner states still differ harshly and seem to disregard the risk dimension of the Mediterranean security problems in this period of Arab transition.     

Concede and Move On? One Nation Labour and the Welfare State

The idea that Labour has already lost the argument on welfare with the Conservatives, and with it the general election, is probably overplayed. If truth be told, Labour's construction and subsequent defence of the welfare state has always been something of a double‐edged sword for the Party, earning it brickbats as well as support, and sometimes as stranding it in the past, committing it to promises that were undeliverable and ultimately self‐defeating. The political response by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls to the welfare trap set for them by David Cameron and George Osborne owes as much to New Labour as it does to ‘One Nation Labour’. That said, the latter does seem to be informing the Party's policy response, in particular its emphasis on restoring the contributory principle. Whether, however, this is practical politics given the inherently hybrid nature of Britain's welfare state and its heavy skew toward help for the elderly is a moot point. And whether ‘One Nation’ actually helps or hinders the Party in its quest for workable policies and a winning electoral formula is similarly debateable. Certainly, however much it is tempted to do so, Labour shouldn't waste too much valuable time trying to counter widespread myths about welfare. Nor should it overreact and obsess about the issue—or, indeed, pour out detailed policy too soon, if at all. Obviously, Labour needs to provide a direction of travel. However, that should focus not so much on welfare itself but on what the Party is proposing on the economy, on housing and on wages.     

Where is the political? Insurgent mobilisations and the incipient “return of the political”

There is an emerging intellectual body of thought on the dynamics of de-politicisation and the “disappearance of the political”. In the first part of the paper, I shall consider the process of post-politicisation. In a second part, I shall re-centre the political by drawing on the work of a range of political theorists and philosophers who have begun to question this post-politicising process. The theme of the final section will consider the contours of a reawakening of the democratic political understood as a political order contingently based on the axiomatic presumption of equality of each and every one in their capacity to act politically.