From salary to resistance: mobility,employment, and violence in Dibra, 1792–1826

ABSTRACT

This article traces the military employment patterns of the highlanders of Dibra in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It addresses how the Albanian highlanders found different opportunities for military employment in a period largely associated with political instability. The Albanians as ‘mountain bandits’ have been regarded as the primary culprit of the violence that ravaged the Balkans. The same bandits, this article shows, constituted at the same time the irregular forces the Ottoman army came to rely on in the late eighteenth century. By demonstrating different prospects of employment with which the Albanian irregulars were preoccupied, it provides a broader perspective to observe the turmoil the Balkans underwent in a period of political instability. This article also deals with the intricate interplay between the Albanian irregulars and the Ottoman military administration. It reinserts the Albanian bandits-cum-irregulars into the background of the military reforms. Showing how different prospects for military employment that ranged from freelance plunder to service either for the imperial army or the retinue of the rogue Albanian pashas came to clash with the discourse of military reforms, this article also traces the increasing tension between the Albanian irregulars and the modernising Ottoman army.     

From the Hague Congress to the Council of Europe: hopes,achievements and disappointments in the parliamentary way to European integration (1948–51)

SUMMARY

This article examines the commitment of many parliamentarians from Western countries after the Second World War in favour of European integration and the role played by the first European representative assembly, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, from its foundation in 1949 to the resignation of its first president, Paul-Henri Spaak, in 1951. The Hague Congress of May 1948 proposed the creation of an assembly elected by national parliaments which was to be the core of an integration process. The Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, established by the Treaty of London of 5 May 1949, was far from satisfying the promoters of a parliament-led Europe, as the Committee of Ministers was the main decision-making body of the new international organization. The members of the Consultative Assembly (many of whom were leading political figures such as Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Guy Mollet, Georges Bidault, Eamon de Valera, Ugo La Malfa and Ferruccio Parri) made an important contribution, however, to creating a supranational forum of discussion, and the Assembly's proposals led to the Convention on Human Rights, signed in November 1950, and to other European conventions. However, the Assembly was unable to share a common vision about the institutional perspectives of European integration. This article examines how the debate about the political structure of Europe was influenced by national traditions.     

From Notary to Ruler: The Role of the President of the Republic during the Italian Crisis (2010–14)

During the period of political and economic crisis in Italy, the President of the Republic became the central institutional actor of the Italian parliamentary government. This led to a debate among party politicians and scholars of Italian politics concerning the role of the Head of State in Italian democracy. Focusing on the period from 2010 until the beginning of 2014, the article explains the growing power of the President by examining the conditions that allowed presidential powers to increase. It concludes by discussing the potential effects of the increase in presidential powers on the evolution of Italian parliamentary government.     

More Money,More Problems: Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Chile (2006–2018)

Since the radical neoliberal reforms to Chilean higher education of the 1980s, the creation of a quality regulatory system has been gradual and unfinished. It was only in 2006 that a law created the National Commission for Accreditation and two instruments: programmes and institutions accreditation. This article analyses the design and implementation of the latter policy instrument using mixed methods, including in-depth interviews with key actors. Our findings show that, although regulations have introduced quality assurance as a key element in higher education policy, the link established between accreditation and financing has generated incentives that dangerously weaken these quality mechanisms.     

Crisis in Turkish–Israeli Relations (December 2008–June 2011): From Partnership to Enmity

Turkey and Israel had been strategic partners since the 1990s. Yet, there has been an unprecedented crisis between the two countries particularly since the winter of 2009. This article analyses the stalemate in bilateral relations, and argues that the Justice and Development Party's (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) Islamist foreign policy toward the Middle East and the 2003 Iraqi war ended the sources of strategic partnership between Turkey and Israel.     

Forging parliamentary space: revolutionary assemblies in New Granada and Spain, 1810–31

SUMMARY

This article analyses the making of space in modern parliamentarism from a transatlantic perspective. By considering the case studies of New Granada and Spain between 1810 and 1831, this article focuses on the differences in shaping parliamentary space during the revolutionary period in Europe and the Americas. This study considers the multiplicity of spaces in the construction of parliaments as modern institutions. It also discusses the influences of early modern estate parliaments in the construction of new institutional space in revolutionary times. In the process, several elements will be considered, such as the choice of the town where parliaments convene and the internal organization of the assembly hall. It is argued that, despite similar issues beyond the construction of a new institution, the influence of the king’s presence in Spain led to a different shape of internal parliamentary space compared to New Granada. Such an approach makes an original contribution to the debates on the transformation of sovereignty during this period and it therefore reshapes the interpretation of the revolutionary process from a cultural perspective.     

Cannabis Prohibition in Egypt, 1880–1939: From Local Ban to League of Nations Diplomacy

This article examines Egypt's stance on cannabis prohibition, from the 1870s ban on cultivation and consumption, to the role Egypt played in the international ban on traffic in cannabis, in the 1924–25 International Opium Conference. Relying on Egyptian polemic writing, British correspondences and League of Nations documentation, this article argues that elite concerns with national modernity, rather than merely British colonial interests, motivated Egyptian drug policy and diplomacy. This article further demonstrates the effects of the Egyptian ban on consumption, as well as on production – across and beyond national borders.     

From Indifference to Obsession: The Role of National State Celebrations in Iraq, 1921–2003

Rulers and elites have invented rituals and commemorations in order to serve their interests—to legitimize their hegemony as well as to maintain the existing social and political order. This process is most salient in the new modern states, whose national identity and collective memory are at an early stage of construction. This article analyses Iraq's state celebrations in the context of its state formation and nation-building processes. Before the US occupation in April 2003, Iraq had been governed by four regimes: the monarchy (1921–1958), ‘Abd al-Karim Qassem (1958–1963), the ‘Arif Brothers (1963–1968), and the Ba‘th (1968–2003). This article shows how successive Iraqi regimes moved from indifference to obsession with regard to celebrating national holidays. It advances three major arguments. First, each regime attempted to de-legitimize its predecessor by erasing or significantly changing its national calendar of holidays. These changes adversely affected the ability of the Iraqi polity to establish a shared historical memory serving as a basis for its national identity. Second, though a modern invention of British colonialism, Iraq's cultural artefacts of celebrations were taken from a mixed reservoir: foreign—both Western European and Eastern European—and local or ‘traditional’, either Islamic or pre-Islamic. The end result of the use of this wide symbolic market was a calendar reflecting a hybrid political culture. Third, the Iraqi case study shows that an inverse correlation exists between the calendar's density and the regime's perceived legitimacy. It seems that a ‘thick’ calendar reflects a shortage of legitimacy while a ‘thin’ calendar reflects a more secure and legitimized regime.     

The roads to parliamentarianism. Models of political inclusion and exclusion between Spain and Mexico, 1810–65

The Cadiz courts symbolize the foundational episode of the liberal revolutions that took place in Spain and Latin America, and from this starting point, this article undertakes a comparative analysis of the different roads in political experimentation implemented in Spain and post-independent Mexico, during the first decades of the nineteenth century, in applying and consolidating liberal state models. In this case, emphasis is given to the debate arising around the representation and idea of political inclusion and exclusion put forward by the different legal frameworks in both countries, as essential cornerstones for modulating the different typologies of parliamentarianism, of the electorate and of the parliamentarian ideal, where a direct link is underlined between elitism and parliamentarian representation.     

Expressed attachment to Russia and social integration: the case of young Russian speakers in Latvia, 2004–2010

The aim of this article is to establish if expressed attachment to Russia, amongst surveyed Russian-speaking youths in 2004 and 2010 in Latvia, demonstrates any noteworthy correlations with factors promoting integration and feelings of belonging to Latvia. The correlation analysis shows that a sense of belonging to Russia and a sense of belonging to Latvia are not mutually exclusive. However, those Russian speakers in Latvia expressing a closer sense of belonging to Russia are also more likely to prefer an all-Russian environment, are skeptical of their rights and influence in Latvia, and are more likely to perceive discrimination in terms of citizenship status and ethnicity. These preferences suggest either a lack of integration or an “external homeland” influence.     

The capacity to aspire: young persons and gender–age relations in southern Tajikistan and North India

ABSTRACT

Rather than studying young men's career- and/or economic-based aspirations, this article explores the obstacles that hinder youths of both sexes in gerontocratic southern Tajikistan and North India from developing the capacity to make their own life choices. Focusing mainly on the selection of marital partner and largely on women, I explore the narratives of those who have never even dreamed of a good life, of others who have dreamed but been unable to actualize their dreams, of a few who have started to plan the way forward, and of a tiny number who actually managed to achieve their aspirations, teasing out the influences that facilitate this. I suggest that even educated youths with some control over their public lives are constricted by their family relations and that it requires quite specific support to defy one’s family, which can create significant vulnerabilities in settings with no other safety net.     

From Bandung to Brasilia: IBSA and the political lineage of South–South cooperation

This article aims to trace South–South cooperation political lineages connecting the Non-Aligned Movement and the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) Forum. In order to determine whether IBSA could be considered the ‘heir’ to Bandung's principles, we analyse the concepts of ‘Third World’ and ‘Global South’ as well as their current applicability, the interpretations provided by existing literature on the IBSA grouping, and its member countries' shared views on different issues of the international agenda. The article also considers the historical evolution of ‘Southern’ diplomatic thought and actions. IBSA's actions and history, as well as its members, are studied to grasp how they are related to the Third World movement in the Cold War.     

From Resistance to Accommodation: Taiwanese Working Class in the Early Postwar Era (1945–55)

This article explores Taiwan’s worker activism in the early postwar era (1945–55) in the attempt to revise the received perception of labour quiescence under high authoritarianism. Rather than a passive victim of state repression, workers mounted two rounds of resistance, first in the form of factory-defending worker-militias during the February 28 Incident of 1947 and later in the subsequent clandestine communist movement. With the case of sugar industry workers, it is argued the postwar ethnic domination was the triggering factor for worker resistance, which was severely repressed. Their consecutive failures as well as the lure of the privileged status of state-owned enterprise employees eventually persuaded them to accept a subordinate role.     

Transformations of a Memory of Tyranny in Syria: From Jamal Pasha to ‘Id al-Shuhada’, 1914–2000

Islam. By L. I. Klimovich, Moscow, 1965.

Arabic Classical Literature. By I. M. Fil'shtinskiy, Moscow, 1965.     

Pleading for a place in modern Egypt: negotiating poverty and patriarchy, 1908–1913

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the petitions of a poor woman, Jalila Sa?d, who sought educational opportunities and property from the Egyptian government between 1908 and 1913. Her interest in procuring a ‘place’ for her sons and her family in modernizing Egypt reflects the ways in which non-elites were able to participate in and move within the major physical and discursive public spaces of the era. This study argues that even those at the very edges of society were not categorically marginalized; rather, they were negotiating the dominant spatial hierarchies of their time in attempts to better their circumstances. This ability to navigate and participate in the prevailing discussions and institutions of the time demonstrates that even the most marginalized elements of Egyptian society were quite integrated into the project of ‘modern Egypt’, even if they did not always reap its benefits.