Transitional Journeys Into and Out of Extremism. A Biographical Approach

This article describes an empirical study into processes of homegrown radicalization and de-radicalization of young people. Researchers in Denmark and the Netherlands set out to answer the question regarding what pathways in and out of extremism (mainly far-right or Islamist) look like “from the inside.” The analysis is informed by grounded theory, based on interviews (N = 34) with “formers” and their family members on their life courses. The study shows that radicalization often concurs with distinct social–emotional developmental challenges that young people face in the transition between youth and adulthood. A practical implication of the marked transitional sequences in these processes is that each type of radical journey may call for a different type of (re)action.     

Understanding Impact in Policy Advisory Systems: The Australian Case of the “Thinker in Residence”

The dynamics of policy advice giving in a policy advisory system (PAS) is complex, multifaceted, and relational. Research on policy advice has shifted from a “first wave” to a “second wave” that places a greater focus on the dynamics of PASs. This article expands our understanding of the impact of advice giving in a PAS by developing a framework that integrates supply, demand, content, and contextual factors. This article introduces a new type of policy actor (the “thinker in residence”) to better understand the relational dynamics of a PAS and compare why some actors achieve greater impact than others.     

Public Value as Rhetoric: A Budgeting Approach

The public value theory has been accused of serving as a “rhetorical device” for public managers to advance their interests and influence vis-à-vis politicians. This article uses Legislative Budget Offices (LBOs) as a lens to re-examine the theme of “public value as rhetoric”. It examines how an LBO can relegate itself to a lower public value-creating position that avoids conflict with politicians, which then allows politicians to employ rhetoric such as fiscal “sustainability” and “responsibility”, without making actual budget choices that incur political costs. The findings of the article suggest that the use of public value as rhetoric is a function of contradictory values held by citizens, which politicians and public managers must reconcile by choosing to divert either resources or rhetoric. Furthermore, rhetoric is bidirectional, and employable not just by public managers, but by politicians as well.     

Ideals Without Institutions: Understandings of Democracy and Democratic Participation Among Ecuadorian Youth

Many scholars of democratization have identified citizen support for democracy as an important determinant of democratic consolidation and deepening. Fewer have explored in depth what everyday citizens actually understand democracy to mean. If mass values shape democratic prospects, what specific notion of “democracy” are the masses inclined to support? This study addresses this question through focus groups conducted with 186 young people in Ecuador, a country that has epitomized challenges of democratic discontent and instability in Latin America. As compared to the dominant survey-based literature, interactive focus group conversations offer a more complex and complete picture of youth democratic perspectives, thus sharpening our analysis of the link between citizen attitudes and democratic performance. Findings have relevance for contemporary debates about “authoritarian drift” in the region, showing youth as strongly invested in democratic freedoms, though highly skeptical of the institutions that allegedly guarantee them. More broadly, the analysis provides a window into how youth conceive of and practice democracy in contexts of unstable democratization.     

The Benefits of Globalization: Why More for South Korea than Mexico?

ABSTRACT

This article examines the arguments for globalization and analyzes Mexico’s “maquiladora experience,” which indicates that globalization alone does not bring about a higher standard of living. The primary reason that Mexico has not benefitted as much as might be expected from globalization has to do with the poor quality of its governance, referring especially to public administration. This assertion is supported by a comparison of Mexico and South Korea. In explaining South Korea’s greater success, Political Elasticity (PE) theory is introduced, suggesting that political power needs to become elastic in two meanings of this word: a “rubber band” meaning (referring to the ability of leaders to delegate power without losing or diminishing it) and “a balloon meaning” (having to do with the ability of leaders to reliably influence the behavior of the general public). Based upon studies of rural and industrial development, South Korea is shown to be more politically elastic than Mexico. This article concludes by examining the lessons that Mexico can learn from Korea’s experience.     

The production of the war criminal cult: Radovan Karadžić and Vojislav Šešelj at The Hague

This article examines how defendants on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) appropriate the tribunal as a platform for national myth and group making. Specifically, the article analyzes Radovan Karad?i? and Vojislav ?e?elj’s “performances” at The Hague in order to highlight the particular ways in which the defendants craft and mobilize the nationalist narrative. The article introduces the phenomenon of “the war criminal cult” and traces three stages of its production, including the defendants’ collectivization of guilt, epitomization of The Hague as the ultimate enemy of the nation, and construction of “Serbs” as the biggest victims of international justice and of themselves as martyrs befallen with the task of defending the dignity of the nation. The “war criminal cult” is thus “made” in conversation with the “imperial West” in a collective narrative that contests the legitimacy and the intention of The Hague while disguising individual responsibility.     

Quality Reform in Malaysian Higher Education Governance: “Identity Formation” or “Knowledge Shopping”?

In line with its Vision 2020, Malaysia has been implementing a series of ‘quality’ reforms in its higher education sector (Sirat, 2010). For critics, these reforms are driven by an ideological shift from the idea that knowledge is a “public good” (Dzulkifli, 2011, p. 28). This study explores whether the use of ‘standards’ as governance forms would lead Malaysia towards “identity formation”, i.e. the creation of a culture-based knowledge society, or direct it towards “knowledge shopping”, i.e. the commodification of higher education. This article concludes that Malaysian higher education governance is more oriented towards “knowledge shopping” than “identity formation.”     

Community Council Cooperation: The Lake Macquarie City Council Co-Governance Delegation Model

In its Better, Stronger Local Government, the Independent Local Government Review Panel (2012a, 2012b) advanced several claims regarding the performance of New South Wales (NSW) local government, including the supposed need for additional “sub-council” governance structures. This article argues that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” in NSW local government by introducing additional “sub-council” structures since existing regulation already enables local authorities to engage in local co-governance. Using the example of the Lake Macquarie City Council (“LakeMac”) “delegation model,” the article shows that LakeMac has been successful in its endeavors to engage widespread community participation in co-governance to manage council facilities.     

Memory and identity: inter-generational narratives of violence among refugees in Serbia

This article examines the role of the inter-generational memory of the Second World War (WWII) in identity formation and political mobilization. An existing explanation in the ethnic-conflict literature is that strategic political leaders play a crucial role in constructing and mobilizing ethnic identities. However, based on 114 open-ended interviews with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, conducted in Serbia during 2008–2011, nearly a third of the respondents make spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and that in the 1940s. The question this article asks, then, is why some respondents make references to WWII spontaneously while others do not. It is argued that inter-generational narratives of past cycles of violence also constitute a process of identity formation, in addition to, or apart from, other processes of identity formation. The respondents mention WWII violence in the context of the 1990s events because they “recognize” elements, such as symbols, discourse or patterns of violence, similar to those in the inter-generational narratives and interpret them as warning signs. Hence, individuals who had previously been exposed to inter-generational narratives may be subsequently more susceptible to political mobilization efforts.     

Politics of Risk-Taking: Welfare State Reform in Advanced Democracies,by Barbara Vis

This article considers the impacts on the public regulation of private business of three key transformations in public management: “towards more targeting of resources” (through more risk-based regulation); “towards a stronger service ethos” (through more customer-centricity); and “towards increased integration” (through more joined-up regulatory organization). Empirical evidence is presented from a program of research focusing on local authority regulation of the businesses sector in England and Wales. The article concludes by reflecting on how such transformations, which are of wide international significance, might be viewed, particularly from a public interest perspective.     

Joel Gregory Prize/Prix Joël Gregory 1989

In Sudan the pastoral groups of nomad origin constitute an important component of that society. Nevertheless, these groups have been the object of a constant “invisibalisation” (symbolic and material) and of a “setting of otherness” contrasting them with other social categories in the country. This article offers a reflection on the contribution of a “pastoral perspective” as a critique of the reductionist trends of a complex of dichotomisation of the categories to consider the two Sudans and their populations. In expanding on the view of several timely ethnographies on the work of various researchers on Sudanese shepherds, as well as on the official “treatment” of these groups in national censuses or development plans, the article proposes avenues for reconsidering Sudanese studies beyond a persistent categorisation of “nomad pastoralism”, which contributes to an accentuation of the differences between the social components at the heart of each of the Sudans as well as between the current two Sudans.     

Education Policy and Philanthropy—The Changing Landscape of English Educational Governance

This article explores some hitherto neglected but nonetheless important aspects of the changing landscape of education policy and governance in England. It sketches some particular features of the increasingly complex and “congested” terrain of the education state and traces some of the primary discourses that currently inform and drive education policy (and, indeed, social policy more generally) both in relation to governance and substance. The article draws on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC–-funded study (RES–000–22–2682), “Philanthropy and Education Policy.” This research involved three sets of activities; extensive and exhaustive Internet searches around particular (corporate) philanthropies, philanthropists, and philanthropically funded programs; interviews with some key “new” philanthropists and foundations interested and involved in education; and the use of these searches and interviews to construct “policy networks.” Together these constitute a “method” of “network ethnography.”     

Abandoning Armed Resistance? The Ulster Volunteer Force as a Case Study of Strategic Terrorism in Northern Ireland

This article explores the Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) decision in May 2007 to abandon its campaign of “armed resistance” and pursue “a non-military, civilianized, role” in Northern Ireland. It does so by analyzing the UVF's actions in light of the academic literature on strategic terrorism. The central argument advanced in the article is that the UVF's decision to put its weapons “beyond reach” and re-structure its organization along civilian lines is (a) internally consistent with its stated policy of countering “violent nationalism,” (b) symptomatic of the transformation in the sociopolitical context since the 1994 paramilitary cease-fires, and (c) the logical outworking of the group's lack of popular legitimacy among its core Protestant working-class support-base. The article concludes with an assessment of the risks and possible dividends that the end of UVF terrorism holds for the Northern Ireland peace process.     

The ghost of essentialism and the trap of binarism: six theses on the Soviet empire

This article endeavors to open a new critical space for Soviet studies and for nationalities studies more generally. Through analyses of recent trends in Soviet studies, the article dismantles the frequently used opposition between subjective and objective approaches to Soviet empire and suggests instead that truths and categories, whether considered “subjective” or “objective,” are constructed discursively, through legitimizing certain interpretive models over the others. The article also argues against disciplinary avoidance of “what is” questions (e.g. “what is a nation?”) and claims that an excessive concern for (re)producing essentialism should not hinder scholarly inquiry. Several new lines of inquiry for the study of the Soviet empire are suggested and also applicable in nationalities studies more generally: research on the role of symbolic violence in manufacturing consent and research concerning the role of affect in producing linkages between the performative life of a singular human being and the pedagogical discourse of a nation or empire. The article also offers an analysis of the Soviet Union as an empire in becoming and it advocates for postcolonial approaches within Soviet studies. The practical dimensions of Soviet rule are exemplified with data from the Baltic borderlands in the postwar years.     

What Are You Prepared to Do? NATO and the Strategic Mismatch Between Ends,Ways, and Means in Afghanistan—and in the Future

This article examines ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) operations in Afghanistan as a way to get at the strategic disconnects in ends, ways, and means that the author believes are endemic to large-scale protracted stability and COIN (counterinsurgency) operations against adversaries who do not pose palpable existential threats to the members of an alliance. The article focuses mainly on the period that followed President Barack Obama's December 2009 announcement of a civilian and military “surge” in Afghanistan through the early stages of the ISAF offensive in Marjah, which began in February 2010. The article concludes that the fundamental strategic issue is that the Allies are not willing (or able) to devote enough resources to achieve their stated objectives. No matter how much the “Ways” might be improved, the “Means” are not sufficient to attain the “Ends.” Thus, what is needed is a more realistic understanding of what ISAF can accomplish in Afghanistan and what NATO might be expected to accomplish in future operations.     

Confusion politique au Congo-Kinshasa

This article, written in February 1998, describes political confusion, contradictions, and ambiguities (institutional as well as ideological) typical of the Kabila’s regime at that time. Political mobilisation as well as political identification were polarised by opposition between “local Zairians,” born from locally-born parents, and “new Congolese” who were born elsewhere or whose parent were born outside of the country. Other factors of political identification were ethnicity, regionalism, and generation. Given the fact that the new political regime suspended all political parties and that Kabila himself did not openly declare himself leader of a political movement, there was no open political activity. The article suggests that the new political crises is coming; it was confirmed by August 1998 rebellion/invasion.     

What Does the “Terrorist” Label Really Do? Measuring and Explaining the Effects of the “Terrorist” and “Islamist” Categories

Many scholars and practitioners claim that labeling groups or individuals as “terrorists” does not simply describe them but also shapes public attitudes, due to the label's important normative and political charge. Yet is there such a “terrorist label effect”? In view of surprisingly scant evidence, the present article evaluates whether or not the terrorist label—as well as the “Islamist” one—really impacts both the audience's perception of the security environment and its security policy preferences, and if yes, how and why. To do so, the article implements a randomized-controlled vignette experiment where participants (N = 481) first read one out of three press articles, each depicting a street shooting in the exact same way but labeling the author of the violence with a different category (“terrorist”/“shooter”/“Islamist”). Participants were then asked to report on both their perceptions and their policy preferences. This design reveals very strong effects of both the “terrorist” and “Islamist” categories on each dimension. These effects are analyzed through the lenses of social and cognitive psychology, in a way that interrogates the use of the terrorist category in society, the conflation of Islamism with terrorism, and the press and policymakers' lexical choices when reporting on political violence.     

Soviet war memorials and the re-construction of national and local identities in post-communist Poland

This article proposes to look afresh at the legacies of communism in urban spaces in post-1989 Poland. Specifically, it investigates the fate of Red Army monuments and explores how these public spaces have been used in the multifaceted and multileveled process of post-communist identity formation. The article suggests that Red Army monuments constitute sites for the articulation of new narratives about the country's past and future which are no longer grounded in the fundamental division between “us” (the nation) and “them” (the supporters of communism) and which are far from being fixed in the binary opposition of the banished and the embraced past. The reorganization of public memory space does not only involve contesting the Soviet past or affirming independence traditions but is rather the outcome of multilayered processes rooted in particularities of time and space. Moreover, the article argues that the dichotomy “liberator versus occupier,” often employed as a viable analytical tool by scholars investigating the post-communist memorial landscape, impedes our understanding of the role played by Soviet war memorials in the process of re-imagining national and local communities in post-1989 Eastern Europe.     

“MORE COLONIAL AGAIN?”—THE POST-1997 CULTURE OF HONG KONG'S GOVERNING ELITE[1]

The remarkable smoothness of Hong Kong's handover from liberal democratic Britain to communist China was not forecast because commentators underestimated the role of Administrative Officers (AOs) as the governing elite under both sovereigns. This article is based on a survey of post-1997 AO culture by an ex-insider and finds subtle changes under the stable surface: a reinforced paternalism, more “Confucian” but also “more colonial again;” less accountability downwards (“just as dedicated to our jobs, but forgetting what they are for”); more caution and conformity upwards. Unexpectedly, the new sovereign sems to interfere less than the old, but benefits from lower expectations and favourably double standards, whereas Hong Kong's government feels hypercriticised. Against the embarrassing reality of postcolonial governance elsewhere, the success of Hong Kong's continuing colonial system should not be ignored just because it does not fit Western democratic models.