Shifting Priorities or Business as Usual? Continuity and Change in the post-2011 IMF and World Bank Engagement with Tunisia,Morocco and Egypt

Following the popular uprisings that erupted across North Africa in 2010 and 2011, international financial institutions have embarked on a significant re-engagement with governments in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. New lending arrangements and project initiatives by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, in particular, have emphasised a supposed turn towards pro-poor policies, social inclusion and public engagement with economic decision-making. This article analyses the content and logic of IMF and World Bank lending to these three countries, examining whether this re-engagement represents a substantive shift away from the neoliberal policies that characterised pre-2011 IFI relationships with the region.     

Representation and resistance in Restoration Scotland: the political thought of James Stewart of Goodtrees (1635–1713)

This article presents a Scottish case study of early modern ideas on parliamentary representation and popular political participation. By scrutinizing the context and content of a treatise published in 1669 by the lawyer James Stewart of Goodtrees, the article seeks to demonstrate that views had shifted on the nature of the Scottish Parliament. In addition, it is argued that the promulgation of Scotland's covenants – that is, the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643) – unwittingly created space for the development of popular political engagement. However, the implications of this were not fully realized until a group of middling and lower class men rose in arms to uphold the Covenants after their rescission in law by parliamentary statute in 1661.     

Supporting political debate while building patterns of trust: the role of the German political foundations in Tunisia (1989–2017)

This article focuses on a specific aspect of the international context surrounding the Tunisian transition to democracy. Through the case of the German political foundations in Tunisia, this study argues that the country’s journey to democracy has not been an exclusively domestic affair, but has also been the product of the engagement of international actors and their interplay with domestic groups. Building on evidence from semi-structured interviews and data triangulation the article shows that since the late 1980s four German political foundations operating in Tunisia created platforms for ‘political debate’ – alternative to the regime’s but not subversive – and encouraged political training. The article posits that initially the German political foundations helped Ben Ali’s regime in the making of a ‘façade liberalisation’, while in the long run their activities generated unintended consequences that in part undermined its ‘authoritarianism upgraded’. The article demonstrates that their longstanding presence on the ground allowed the German political foundations to develop patterns of trust with and between political and civil groups, ultimately improving the capacity of their action after the revolution.     

Inter-parliamentary European Union–Latin American Caribbean (EU-LAC) relations and the increasing political convergence among Latin American regional parliaments (2006–15)

Europe and Latin America present a long-standing tradition of parliamentary diplomacy and particularly in the development of regional parliaments. Since the 1970s, inter-parliamentary relations between the two regions have been institutionalized, first by the regular dialogue of the European Parliament with the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) and more recently, in 2006, with the creation of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat). Apart from representatives of Parlatino, EuroLat includes in the European Union-Latin American Caribbean (EU-LAC) parliamentary dialogue members of other regional assemblies created in recent decades, such as the Andean Parliament, the Central American Parliament and the Mercosur Parliament. However, recent EuroLat meetings have made evident a polarization of positions on regional politics between European and Latin American sides, especially regarding the political and human rights situation in Venezuela. In this sense, the present paper analyzes the impact of EU-LAC relations on the political convergence of Latin American parliaments concerning regional political issues. The aim is to discuss how institutionalized relations with the European Parliament, through EuroLat, increased convergence among Latin American parliamentarians. This argument is exemplified by the joint defensive position on the Venezuelan political situation adopted by Latin American parliamentarians vis-à-vis the European Parliament's condemnatory position.     

Social Change and Demographic Response in Iran (1956–2006)

This article considers the association between religion, family formation and social trends in Iran from a socio-demographic perspective. Iran has experienced one of the most spectacular falls in birth rate ever experienced in human history. The fundamental socio-cultural changes over the past few decades have made it a unique ‘social laboratory’ for the analysis of determinants of changes in marriage and fertility patterns. While emphasising the distinctiveness of the country case study, the article also provides evidence relating to the long-standing debate as to whether religion or factors other than religion explain such characteristics as early marriage, high incidence of marriage and high fertility in so-called Islamic contexts.     

Perceptions of State and Leadership in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan (1991–2009)

The focus of this paper is the shifting perceptions of the state, leadership and politics, and the shifting perceptions of Azerbaijanis themselves and the outside world. The information presented in this article is based on personal interviews conducted with leading and influential members of the Azerbaijani political elite in Baku in August 1998 and April 2009. Attitudes and norms concerning the state, leadership and politics emanate from three sources: the legacy of the pre-Soviet (Turkish) period, the Soviet period, and the circulation of western democratic values and norms. This reflects the impact of historical and cultural forces that have shaped the lives of the political elites and are manifested in their understanding of contemporary governance. A powerful state and a strong leader mutually reinforce each other where the leader is perceived as responsible for the well-being of its citizens. In this context, the article examines the conflicting narratives of the government and the opposition in Azerbaijan while reconstructing their national past and building their future, where their past becomes an important source for the mentality of governance in the country.     

The strange case of a national anthem without lyrics: music and political identities in Spain (1785–1913)*

Over the course of the long nineteenth century, between 1785 and 1913, Spain underwent processes of national construction similar to those experienced in other European countries. This phenomenon can be analysed through the crucial aspect of national symbols. Music played a leading role in these processes and engendered two opposing models, the product of internal political divisions. One, influenced by the style of the French Revolution, gave rise to a great many popular songs and was represented most of all by the Himno de Riego or “Riego Hymn,” the preferred anthem of the liberal and democratic left. The other, following a monarchist template inspired by the United Kingdom, was embodied in the Marcha Real or Royal March, a piece of ceremonial music without words that was promoted by conservative sectors opposed to popular political mobilization. The struggle between the two resulted in the adoption of the latter march as Spain’s official national anthem, although its association with the monarchy and the Catholic religion impeded the formation of a broad consensus around it. Contrary to the arguments maintained by many historians until a few years ago, the case of Spain cannot be considered as exceptional, although it did have certain peculiarities deriving from conflicts between different versions of Spanish nationalism and between the nationalism of the state and the sub-state nationalist movements that emerged towards the end of this period.     

Matrimony and baptism: changing landscapes in Greek (Rum) Orthodox Jerusalem (1900–1940)

Previously unexamined material from two archives of the Greek (Rum) Orthodox community in Jerusalem shed new light on our understanding of the dynamic of an important segment of the city during the transition period between the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate eras. We use these unexplored records to question communal affiliations, transitions of identity, the impact of modernity as well as notions of sacred space. We offer unique insight regarding the Christian Orthodox denomination in the city by examining its two main sub-communities, Palestinians and Greeks, and exploring the connection between the community and the city. We argue that the proximity to the holy sites bears little impact on private Christian life. We trace the impact of modernity through the change of professions and argue that the most important divide in the community was not between the ethnic groups but between the older and younger generations. Naming patterns (prosopography) disclose other influences of modernity. We contend that a seemingly minor change in naming patterns is indicative of two important processes: the secularization of the community and rising Palestinian nationality.     

Allende in Athens: The Political and Cultural Impact of the Chilean 1970s in Greece during the Colonels' Dictatorship and the Metapolitefsi (1970–1981)

This article discusses how Greeks perceived Salvador Allende's overthrow, Pinochet's military dictatorship, and US interventionism in Chile. By the end of Greece's dictatorship (1967–1974), left-wing militants emotionally identified with the ‘Chilean tragedy’ through their own experiences of military authoritarianism. Indeed, the Greek Colonels' Junta amplified the 1973 Chilean coup's local impact. Subsequently, during the early Metapolitefsi period (1974–1981), a wide variety of Greek political, social, and cultural actors used the Chilean 1970s as a key reference in the crucial debates that ultimately redefined Greece's collective political and cultural identities.     

Cross-dressing and sex change stories in Spanish illustrated magazines (1928–1936)

During the 1920s and 1930s, the impression that the boundaries between the sexes were increasingly blurring was pervasive in many parts of the world. In Spain, sexual ambiguity often became the focus of public discussions on the upheaval of the traditional gender order. As part of this phenomenon, stories of cross-dressers made good copy in popular illustrated magazines such as Nuevo Mundo, Mundo Gráfico, Estampa, and Crónica, which were the top-sellers of their kind during the interwar period. By analyzing a group of cross-dressing and sex change stories from these periodicals – the way they were told and interpreted – I shed light on the ways in which the perceived fluidity of gender was constructed in a medium that reached a relative large segment of the Spanish population. The journalistic pieces I consider manifested different reactions to sexual ambiguity that ranged from the condemnatory to the matter-of-fact. Regardless, they all contributed – implicitly or explicitly – to undermine essentialist arguments underpinning the ideology of separate spheres of action for men and women. On occasion, these texts put forth an intimation, avant la lettre, of Judith Butler’s notion of the performativity of gender.     

Local demands and state policies: general councils (Meclis-i Umumi) in the Edirne and Ankara provinces (1867–1872)

By comparing the decisions of various meetings of the General Councils of Edirne and Ankara provinces from 1283 to 1288 (1867–1872 AD), this study analyses social and economic dynamics of both provinces, the state vocabulary for handling local demands, and the boundaries of responsibility for the state and the local actors in provincial administration. Instead of reading the Tanzimat as a top-down imposition, this article defines General Councils as sites of negotiations between state and local actors and instruments for local development. This article challenges the conventional view of provincial councils as weak and unable to implement various policies. It contributes to a new generation of studies that challenges the separation between state and social forces and looks at how both interacted in provincial administration.     

Thailand’s Deep State,Royal Power and the Constitutional Court (1997–2015)

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the network monarchy approach and advocates for the use of the concept of Deep State. The Deep State also has the monarchy as its keystone, but is far more institutionalised than the network monarchy accounts for. The institutionalised character of the anti-democratic alliance is best demonstrated by the recent use of courts to hamper the rise of electoral politics in a process called judicialisation of politics. This article uses exclusive material from the minutes of the 1997 and 2007 constitution-drafting assemblies to substantiate the claim that the Deep State used royalists’ attempts to make the Constitutional Court a surrogate king for purposes of its own self-interested hegemonic preservation.     

Trade Unions and Political Parties in Italy (1946–2014): Ideological Positions and Critical Junctures

The paper investigates party-union relationships in Italy (1946–2014) by hand-coding parties’ parliamentary speeches and trade unions’ congress motions. In line with the cartel party thesis, a time series analysis shows that the ideological closeness between the left-wing Italian General Confederation of Labour and left-wing parties deteriorated when the Italian Socialist Party (1980) and the heirs of the Italian Communist Party (1998) converged toward the centre of the ideological spectrum. Conversely, the closeness between the Catholic-inspired Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions and the heirs of Christian Democracy increased after 1994, when the former party’s leftist factions became the major part of the Italian Popular Party.