Fatima's Revolutionary Image in Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh (1955): The Inception of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's Activism

This article examines Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's first publication, Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh, contextualising the historiographical depiction of the dispute that ensued between Abu Bakr and Fatima over the Fadak land. Informed by traditional Shi‘i approaches to this episode of early Islamic history, the study locates the text's themes within various Iraqi contexts, including the struggle for the ideological orientation of the state, the quest for a unified Iraqi Civil Code and the place of Shi‘is in the new Iraqi state. The main contention of this study is that through his engagement with contours of Iraqi oppositional discourse, Sadr transforms the traditional image of Fatima from a weak and abused victim of injustice to a revolutionary heroine who fought for Shi‘i political and legal rights. His innovative portrayal of Fatima's claim to the Fadak marks one of the earliest efforts to reinterpret Shi‘i parables in an activist spirit. Sadr is among the first to promote the shift from passive eschatological expectations for redress to temporal confrontation with forces of injustice and to convey the message that protest is desirable irrespective of its chances of success.     

Editorial

During the democratic transition in South Korea, a broad middle class/working class coalition was initially strong enough to wring political concessions from the authoritarian regime but soon dissolved, raising important questions concerning the internal composition and ideological divisions of the alliance. This article, by exploring the relationship between class structure and class consciousness, aims to unfold one strand of mechanisms that explain why the political class coalition was so precarious and short-lived.     

A threat or a promise: acquisition of teaching hospitals by investor-owned chains

In the early 1980s, acquisition of a small number of teaching hospitals by investor-owned chains raised the spectre of a for-profit takeover of teaching institutions. Drawing on experience to date, as well as interviews with affected parties, this article assesses the likely scope of such acquisitions and their impact on the education, research, and indigent care that teaching hospitals provide. Our assessment concludes that relatively few teaching hospitals are likely to satisfy the financial criteria chains apply to acquisitions; that hospitals with modest rather than extensive commitments to education and research are most likely to satisfy these criteria; and that terms of sale typically enhance, rather than undermine, these institutions' resources for research, education, and, to a lesser extent, indigent care, at least in the short run. In the long run, continuation of these activities is more likely to be a function of third-party payment policies than of proprietary versus nonprofit hospital ownership.     

Hawaiian Sovereignty

The movement for national sovereignty among persons of Hawaiianancestry has burgeoned during the last several decades, withsome seeking secession of the State of Hawai'i from the AmericanUnion. The movement's roots are multiple, among which figuresprominently the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani in 1893 withthe connivance of the armed forces of the United States, forwhich the U. S. Congress recently apologized. Some indigenousHawaiians dismiss the annexation of Hawai'i and its subsequentstatehood as having occurred without their independent choice.The Hawaiian sovereignty movement may be roughly divided intothree categories: "Hawaiian Nation Separatists" supporting anindependent Hawai'i nation; "Nation-within-a-Nation" advocatesdesiring a status comparable to that of American Indians; andthose Hawaiians supporting the status quo but with redress inmany forms. Steps are underway to hold constitutional conventionof all Hawaiians to propose a native Hawaiian government. Whetherthe U.S. Congress can respond to the thrust of the movementwithin the constraints of the American federal system remainsproblematical.     

Buffalo tales: interest group policy stories in Greater Yellowstone

Wicked policy problems—those that resist resolution and continuously cycle through different administrative jurisdictions—are time-consuming for the practitioner and expensive. In these wicked policy environs, interest group narratives contribute to this intractability through the continued construction of a policy loser’s tale. Central to our study is the analysis of group maturation with that of policy narrative elements. We explore whether there is a relationship between lobby tactics, financial resources, and professionalization of authorship of narratives and policy narrative elements. We content analyze the policy stories of the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) over a 10-year period (1999–2008), using the Yellowstone National Park bison and brucellosis controversy as case material and track how this new interest group’s fundamental policy story has changed over the course of its lifespan. As demonstrated through their choice of lobby tactics, the group does evolve from an unconventional to a conventional interest group, with two out of three of their constructed policy beliefs remaining unchanged and their political tactics consistently focusing on spinning the loser’s tale aimed at expanding the policy arena. Suggestions on the importance of this work to scientists, administrators, and academics are included.     

Why information and transparency about electricity matter: Fragmentation of governance and accountability under New Public Management

From 1995, Australian governments pursued efficiency benefits arising from significant structural reforms in the Electricity Supply Industry, including corporatisation and regulation of network monopolies, and introduction of competition for generators and for retailers. The restructure was motivated by the ideology of New Public Management and influenced by the field of neoliberal economics. More than two decades later, prices paid for electricity by residential and commercial customers have escalated sharply, resulting in sustained anger from all consumers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair has admitted that ‘The National Electricity Market is largely broken’. This article documents the reduction in public access to information about electricity supply, the fragmentation in responsibility and accountability for consumer outcomes, and the consequences of these changes for transparency, industry operation, and retail electricity prices. New research enabled the creation of a database of Queensland energy production, consumption, and prices; this facilitated a fresh analysis of Queensland electricity sector performance since the restructure of electricity supply.