Five Stars and a Cricket. Beppe Grillo Shakes Italian Politics

The article focuses on a new political player: the Five Star Movement led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The party lies at the junction between different organisational models and conceptions of democracy: it combines an online and an offline presence; it has ‘horizontal’ structural elements, but a top-down decision-making process; it is positioned ‘beyond’ ideologies, while its electorate comes from various political families. The work considers the history, message, leader, organisation and electoral base of the movement, as well as the political opportunity structure that facilitated its growth in 2012 and the challenges it faces in the delicate phase of institutionalisation.     

Representative Assemblies in Early Modern European State-Building: Evidence from Four Experiences

The article reassesses the role played by parliaments and other representative structures in the European state-building processes. It points to a need of going beyond the traditional antagonist conception of the relationships between rulers and social forces rooted in comparative historical political science, substituting it with a theory grounded in the concept of political exchange. A preliminary analysis of four cases (Brandenburg-Prussia, Dutch Republic, Poland, and Sweden) is conducted, with the purpose of singling out the “internal” determinants — that is, institutional properties of the assemblies — that allowed them to integrate into the institutional framework of the states in formation, or that hindered such an integration. These determinants are found to consist in three main factors: organisational centralisation, working autonomy, and a significant interdependence relationship with a distinct and relatively autonomous governmental centre.     

Factors for Integration? Transnational Party Cooperation in the European Parliament, 1952–79

The idea that supranational institutions of the European Union (EU) such as the European Parliament (EP) actively promote integration has been manifest in discourses of the European Community (EC) since the 1950s. There is less evidence that parties in the EP do so, partly because their existence at the European level is a relatively new phenomenon. It is also problematic, as these parties do not constitute a European party system above the state. The article traces the development of transnational cooperative links among the parties of the European Parliament from 1952 to 1979, and illustrates that, from the earliest stages of European Integration, party representatives participating in the newly established Assembly chose to adopt political stances, organisational structures and norms that were transnational and supranational in style and representation.     

Clientelism: factionalism in the allocation of public resources in Iraq after 2003

This article examines clientelism in Iraq as a case study of one form of corruption. Iraq is an unusual case of corruption, because a key feature of Iraq's corrupt environment is an institutionalised factional political system based on sectarian quotas. The article explores the many links between clientelism and political factionalism, discussing whether clientelism arose because of factionalism, or whether factionalism merely determines the ways that clientelism currently operates in Iraq. Using fieldwork data, the findings show there are two distinct levels of clientelism in Iraq, both of which are linked to political factions: the individual level and the organisational level. First, clientelism at the individual level entails the elites of many political factions regarding ‘money politics’ as a means of influence in Iraq/Kurdistan by buying people's affiliations and thereby governing people. Second, clientelism at the organisational level entails that the spoils of political office are shared out among the elites of the political factions in a proportionate fashion. The article concludes that clientelism is a form of political rather than economic corruption; and that while there may be some immediate value in clientelism, its long-term harm outweighs its short-term value.     

The Rise of Golden Dawn: The New Face of the Far Right in Greece

The article examines the rise of the one of the most extremist political parties in Europe, Golden Dawn. It sketches the historical trajectory of the Greek far right, examines the ideological, organisational and voter profile of Golden Dawn, and offers possible explanations for its breakthrough in the 2012 elections. The article shows how the economic crisis has brought a massive realignment of the Greek electorate away from mainstream parties, giving rise to anti-system and anti-immigrant sentiments. Golden Dawn's violent tactics have allowed the party to establish an anti-system and anti-immigrant profile and capitalise on these sentiments. The party's future will depend on its capacity to absorb organisationally any future tensions between party pragmatists and idealists.     

Waging Peace on Okinawa

“Waging Peace on Okinawa” examines peace discourses as enacted in tours of battle sites and war (peace) memorials on the main island of Okinawa. Pointing out linkages with and divergences from mainland Japanese peace practices, the essay focuses on “peace guides” that have emerged as the backbone of educational tours that cater to Okinawan and, especially, mainland Japanese schoolchildren. Staffed by volunteers in conjunction with private and public organizations, peace guide tours and their supporting materials endeavor to promote peace by conveying a historical knowledge of the Battle of Okinawa that is more richly contextualized – “complete” – than that which is typically found in official textbooks, commercial tours, and patriotic pilgrimages. “Complete” in this context implies open discussion – even highlighting – of the violence and discrimination Okinawan civilians suffered at the hands of Japanese during the battle, but it also signals discriminatory treatment toward Okinawans before and beyond the battle (the most concrete example of the latter being the maintenance of U.S. military bases under the U.S.-Japan security arrangement). Peace guides and their supporters thus find themselves in a battle over historical representation that arguably has more to do with immediate political and economic issues than with setting the historical record straight.     

Political support through representation by the government. Evidence from Dutch panel data

Research on political support demonstrates that satisfaction with democracy is higher among electoral winners than losers, and that it is higher for citizens who are ideologically more congruent with the government. In this paper, I analyze how support for the political system is affected by representation by the government. Expanding on previous studies, I leverage long-run panel data from the Dutch LISS panel spanning over several electoral cycles. Drawing on various measures that go beyond the distinction between election winners and losers and also measure how close citizens are to the government coalition as a whole, I show that being well represented by the government has a wide-ranging positive relationship with satisfaction with democracy, external efficacy and trust in political institutions. While this relationship is mostly short-run, political support can decline substantially if non-representation persists in the long-run. This highlights the relevance of long-run panel data for studying the consequences of representation.     

Contested Resource Extraction,Anti-Corporate Protests and the Politics of Movement Alliance in Bangladesh

Why do activist groups form alliances and why do some alliances later fall apart? This article asks these questions in the context of a popular mobilisation against resource extraction in Bangladesh. It focuses on the dynamics of a strategic alliance between a locally organised community mobilisation against a British mining company and an urban radical activist group, known for its anti-capitalist activism, to explore the subsequent collapse of the alliance and the demobilisation of one group. Based on the qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with activists and organisational documents, the article probes the underlying causes of rupture. Although several individual and organisational factors are identified, it is argued that Bangladesh’s confrontational political culture and its authoritarian party system played a critical role, with local activists vulnerable to co-optation or being silenced by powerful political actors. The article contributes to social movement scholarship by emphasising that specific political cultures can undermine efforts to build strategic alliances between diverse social movement organisations.     

Petitioning,addressing and the historical imagination: the case of Great Yarmouth,England 1658–1784

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of loyal addresses, petition-like texts that emerged during the Cromwellian Protectorate in England, as repositories of public memory. It contends that loyal addresses were a particularly mnemonic form of political communication: not only did addresses themselves incorporate historical narratives but their reproduction in contemporary newsbooks facilitated their later collection in compendia and histories of addressing. These volumes in turn gave an overall ‘sense’ or character to public opinion nationally and allowed its shifts to be charted over time. The article uses the case study of an address to Richard Cromwell issued in 1658 from the corporation of Great Yarmouth to demonstrate how this text was redeployed to wage a political campaign against leading magistrates in the town in the 1670s. The address gained renewed political significance in the late eighteenth century, as the interplay of local political and historical interests made its depiction of the influence of religious factions in the borough once again relevant. This local memory in turn fed upon a wider national use of the Cromwellian addresses as an example of political faithlessness and duplicity. Combined, these local and national discussions demonstrated the importance of addresses in defining public opinion and political identity over time.     

A Moveable Place With A Moveable Past: Perspectives on Central Europe

This paper discusses whether the region which in the 1990s has been called "the Visegrád Four" is a political and/or cultural whole and if so, in what respects. Using the concepts "centre" and "periphery" the paper argues that parts of contemporary Central Europe were political and cultural centres of the European civilisation in previous eras. The interpretation and use of this past in the Central European states' contemporary endeavour to join NATO and the EU is discussed. That historical chronology is superseded by what may be labelled the "mythological presence" of things past is especially noted.     

The Legacy of Colonial Labour Unions in Indonesia

This article discusses the legacy of the colonial labour movement in Indonesia under five broad headings; labour unions and the development of political consciousness; labour unions as socio-economic institutions; leaders, followers and the development of worker leadership; organisations and structural legacies; and class, ethnic and religious divisions. For over three decades after the first labour union was created in 1908, union leaders struggled to build organisations that cut across the ethnic, linguistic and social class divisions of Indonesian workplaces. They had limited success. Nevertheless, labour unions did have an important role in increasing workers' wages, representing their grievances to employers and forcing the colonial government to pressure employers to improve both wages and conditions. They were central to the development of political consciousness, creating opportunities for Indonesians to acquire organisational skills and providing a channel for many to join nationalist political parties. In 1941, on the eve of the Japanese occupation, labour unions were among the strongest Indonesian organisations in the colonial towns and cities. In the aftermath of independence in August 1945 labour unions were quickly re-formed and, freed from many of the restrictions of the colonial states, recruited large numbers of urban workers. The successes and failures of the colonial labour movement were part of the collective memory of many leaders and members, influencing the direction of post-independence activities.     

Reflections on Fiji since Independence

Abstract

Fiji's post-colonial journey has been fraught, a promising beginning hobbled by political instability, periodic military coups and stagnant economic growth. Political disagreements over the best form of political representation have featured prominently in Fiji's political discourse, with no enduring resolution in sight.     

The historical emergence and transformation of the Moroccan political party field

Abstract

This article offers a historical analysis of the emergence of the political party field in post-independence Morocco and makes the case for a bottom-up approach that pays close attention to actors’ cultural dispositions, capabilities and the constraints imposed upon them by emergent fields. It starts by briefly introducing the conceptual toolbox of Bourdieusian field theory, underscoring the analytical strengths of the concepts it includes. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of both primary and secondary sources, the article then deploys the aforementioned concepts to trace the historical processes that shaped the emergence of the Moroccan political party field. In doing so, this article suggests a novel approach to the study of political parties that emphasizes the importance of adopting a bottom-up perspective, and the need to go beyond mono-causal explanatory accounts.     

Re-gendering Chinese History: Zhao Mei’s Emperor Wu Zetian

Historians who share the written Chinese language as a carrier of cultural signification have negotiated the image of female emperor Wu Zetian with the signs of the times designated by the needs of the present. The female writer Zhao Mei's new biography Woman: Wu Zetian deconstructs the historical and cultural representation of Wu Zetian as the 'bad unwoman'; links a woman's private, and subjective experiences with her public and political activities; and demonstrates that how the former influences the latter. This paper examines how the participation of contemporary biographers in knowledge production constructs, legitimises and maintains the image of Wu Zetian as a woman and a ruler. It argues that Zhao Mei's biography of Wu Zetian manages to confront the established dominance of male hierarchy, questions the 'stigmatised identity' of this historical character as being stable and universal and, consequently re-genders an important chapter in Chinese history.     

‘A Pre-eminent Right to Political Rule’:1 Indigenous Fijian Power and Multi-ethnic Nation Building

Abstract

The indigenous Fijian conviction of entitlement to political power was encouraged by their privileged position in the colonial state and their marginalisation in the modern economy. The development of a cohesive nation state has been impeded by ongoing conflict between two political imperatives: indigenous nationalism and the need to shape a system of political representation and government accommodating the interests of the non-indigenous citizens, primarily the Indians, who together number over 40% of the population. This paper traces the course of that conflict from the commencement of decolonisation in the early 1960s to the political instability arising from strengthened ethno-nationalism and military intervention since 1987.     

Bolivia: Another Uncompleted Revolution

Since 1999, growing citizen dissatisfaction in Bolivia has been manifest in a cycle of often violent protests. Citizens believe that they have no means of expressing themselves except demonstrations. The public has grown weary of neoliberalism, which is perceived as benefiting only the elite. A recent economic downturn provided the catalyst for the unrest. Underlying these economic concerns, however, are fundamental problems with representation. The second Bolivian "revolution" involved not only the shift from state-led economic development to neoliberalism but also a shift from corporatism to pluralism. Representative institutions have not fully responded to the new pluralistic landscape, despite a range of political reforms. Many Bolivians find that their voice in government has weakened even as their needs have grown. The Bolivian case thereby highlights the obstacles young democracies face in winning over decreasingly tolerant citizens.     

Wildlife policy matters: inclusion and exclusion by means of organisational and discursive boundaries

As a result of shifting wildlife policy, approximately one-sixth of South Africa's total land has been ‘game-fenced’ and converted for wildlife-based production during the last three decades. The wildlife industry has thereby become a multibillion rand industry with an increasingly vocal political arena. Seeing nature and its production as an organised political project, this article sets out to give insight into the shifting power relations between wildlife utilisers, government officials and civil society in South Africa. It does so by examining the production of dominant narratives on wildlife in the emerging organisational field of wildlife policy. This article studies the Wildlife Forum, an important national discursive space in which government engages with non-governmental parties about wildlife policy. The article argues that by means of organisational and discursive restructuring, government and industry actors have promoted a discourse alliance that endorses both government's conservation interests and industry's development interests, while excluding dissenting voices.     

韩国政治社会化的历史分析及启示

政治社会化是政治文化的传播、维持和改变。一国政治文化主要依赖于内部诸条件的相互作用与耦合,但外部因素也是影响政治文化乃至政治社会化进程的重要变量。由于特殊的历史原因,韩国社会经历过多次传统社会的价值观和生活规范的解体、分化与重组。韩国政治文化及其社会化受外部因素的影响特别大,尤其是受中国、日本和美国的影响巨大。从历史的角度考察三国对韩国政治文化和政治社会化的影响,分析韩国政治社会化的历史与现实,将为包括中国在内的诸多发展中国家走向政治现代化提供有益借鉴与启示。     

"Real Solemn History" and its Discontents: Australian Political History and the Challenge of Social History

The relationship between Australian political and social history has received little historiographical attention. Political history has been lauded or, more often, dismissed as traditional historical practice, while from the 1960s social history took its place as a catch-all phrase for various "new" histories concerned with everyday life. This article examines the place of political and social history in the nascent Australian academic historical profession of the 1950s to the early 1970s, and then explores the impact of the new social history on academic political history. It will suggest that while there was only limited exchange before the late 1980s, in the last twenty years social history has contributed modestly to a reconstituted understanding of political history as part of lived experience.
"[…] I can read poetry and plays, and things of that sort, and do not dislike travels. But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. Can you?"
"Yes, I am fond of history."
"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention […]". ¹