Different Approaches,Different Results in Small State Studies: Complementary Views on the Monarchy and Traditional Governance in Liechtenstein

The research note comments on W. Veenendaal's article “A Big Prince in a Tiny Realm: Smallness, Monarchy, and Political Legitimacy in the Principality of Liechtenstein”. It is argued, inter alia, that the phenomenon of “princely self‐restraint” should not be underestimated in Liechtenstein's constitutional reality. The character of the microstate's actual political system strongly depends on the individual personality of the Reigning Prince . A strong monarch who acts as a political actor with his own agenda should not be conceptualized as a neutral traditional leader. From the perspective of many citizens of Liechtenstein, the principality's political system is legitimate since it combines traditional authority and legal‐rational authority in a unique way. Largely due to the powerful role of the government, the microstate is characterized by consensus‐oriented hierarchical governance. Elite surveys can be seen as a useful instrument to overcome some of the methodological pitfalls of the elite interview approach.     

Jordan’s self-fulfilling prophecy: the production of feeble political parties and the perceived perils of democracy

This article analyses the depiction of political parties in a ‘hybrid regime’ so as to explain how state-sponsored articulatory practices contribute to the discrediting of potential opponents. Through an examination of textbooks, speeches and government documents combined with semi-structured interviews and participant observation, it dissects how tropes concerning party weakness or extremism make Jordan appear unprepared for democracy. Making the legal opposition seem menacing or incompetent helps the Hashemite regime legitimize the haphazard pace of political reforms. It is a crucial strategy through which the monarchy maintains the backing or tepid compliance of foreign and local supporters. Yet still, the discursive features of authoritarianism, in Jordan and elsewhere, continue to receive short shrift. Far from epiphenomenal, the monarchy’s discursive practices shape the conceptual universe and institutional contexts in which politics takes place.     

Legacy of the past,promise of the future: Land reform,land grabbing,and land conversion in the Calabarzon

Abstract

Rather than viewing the recent violence in the Thai South largely as a product of long-standing historical and socioeconomic grievances, this article argues that the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has played a crucial role in provoking conflict in the region. Early in his premiership, Thaksin decided that the South was controlled by forces of “network monarchy” loyal to the palace and to former prime minister Prem Tinsulanond. Thaksin sought to reorganize political and security arrangements in the deep South in order to gain personal control of the area, but in the process he upset a carefully negotiated social contract that had ensured relative peace for two decades. As the violence increased, royal displeasure — articulated mainly by members of the Privy Council — forced Thaksin to make certain concessions, notably the creation of a National Reconciliation Commission to propose solutions for the growing crisis. Network monarchy had struck back, albeit from a position of weakness. This analysis seeks to demonstrate that the southern violence is actually inextricable from wider developments in Thailand's national politics.     

The Outcry of the Periphery? An Analysis of Ticino's No to Immigration

When the popular initiative “against mass immigration” was accepted by the Swiss people and cantons on 9 February 2014, Ticino had by far the highest approval rate. The Italian‐speaking canton thus once more confirmed its singular position, assumed since the 1990s, on popular votes regarding immigration and foreign policy. This seems to be indicative of wider crises and changes in both the economic and political spheres that have favoured the emergence of a political opposition between centre and periphery. The results of a survey among 1400 citizens of Ticino after the vote of 9 February confirm this. In essence, on top of the question of immigration, the vote was influenced by a fearful perception of Ticino as a “double periphery” vis‐à‐vis both Berne and Lombardy.     

National Elections in Switzerland: an Introduction

“It is difficult to compare popular participation in Swiss elections with that of any other democratic country in Europe. The smallness of the country, the rugged nature of the land, the diversity of languages, the strengths of the traditions of local self‐government, the variety of political institutions, and the multiplicity of elections make Switzerland a unique place for political experiments” (Gosnell 1930: 426).     

A Kingdom in Crisis – What’s All the Fuss About?

This article reviews Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, a book on how Thailand’s political challenges relate to the Thai monarchy. The review draws comparisons between the excitement surrounding the publication of the acclaimed book The King Never Smiles in 2006 and the recent reaction to the publication of A Kingdom in Crisis. It argues that the book is an important contribution because it informs a wide audience about the damaging political role of the monarchy, but it repeatedly ignores an already existing corpus of literature that deals critically with Thailand’s monarchy. Moreover, its focus on the succession as the key factor in the ongoing political crisis is unnecessarily narrow and should have been complemented by an analysis of structural forces as drivers of change.     

Thai social movements and the anti-ADB campaign

This article examines the desacralisation of royal charisma in contemporary Thailand. Over the past few years an underground discourse has emerged among critics of royal ideology and supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that directly confronts the power of the monarchy. The images, metaphors and linguistic devices used in the process are difficult to study because they rarely appear in public. This article focuses on an unprecedented demonstration of rage against the monarchy on September 19, 2010, when red-shirted demonstrators painted anti-royal graffiti on a construction hoarding at Ratchaprasong intersection in downtown Bangkok. In analysing the Thai political crisis as a battle of different charismatic groups, the article will present the September 19 event as the first open strike against the sacred charisma of the Thai monarchy. This charisma has hitherto been protected by royalists from all walks of life who were “working towards the monarchy.” With their attacks on the monarchy the red-shirts were challenging a legitimacy-conferring system which had benefited wide sections of the Bangkok populace in the past. At the same time, a competing charismatic movement has emerged around Thaksin, who himself has to take into account the charisma he conferred upon his followers.     

Parliamentarianism and anti-parliamentarianism in Portugal. The voices of the republicans, 1910–26

In Portugal the republican regime broke ties with the monarchy, advocating the need to reassume the national principle, as well as the secularization of its foundations and of the state itself. With the establishment of the new parliamentary republic in 1910 and the debate between republic and monarchy, the supporters of parliamentarianism saw a rupture in the composition and relationship between the powers foreseen in the constitutional charter of 1826, which gave more power to the king during the period of the constitutional monarchy. This made republicans grow closer to the constitution of the French Third Republic, the Brazilian constitution of 1891, the 1812 constitution of Cadiz and the 1822 Portuguese constitution, owing to the fact that these were radical liberal constitutions that conferred national sovereignty. The republicans put forward various arguments both to defame and to defend parliamentarianism. Nevertheless, as in the constitution of 1822, the republican constitution of 1911 stipulated that the congress (the Portuguese Parliament) would be, in theory, the only body that could regulate the political guidelines of the republic.     

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.     

Pre‐Election Positions and Voting Behaviour in Parliament: Consistency among Swiss MPs

This article examines the determinants of positional incongruence between pre‐election statements and post‐election behaviour in the Swiss parliament between 2003 and 2009. The question is examined at the individual MP level, which is appropriate for dispersion‐of‐powers systems like Switzerland. While the overall rate of political congruence reaches about 85%, a multilevel logit analysis detects the underlying factors which push or curb a candidate's propensity to change his or her mind once elected. The results show that positional changes are more likely when (1) MPs are freshmen, (2) individual voting behaviour is invisible to the public, (3) the electoral district magnitude is not small, (4) the vote is not about a party's core issue, (5) the MP belongs to a party which is located in the political centre, and (6) if the pre‐election statement dissents from the majority position of the legislative party group. Of these factors, the last one is paramount.     

Le pouvoir et la guerre dans le discours parlementaire (1914–1918)

SUMMARY

In 1914 the political situation in Portugal was driven by feelings of insecurity, following the revolution of 1910 which had replaced the monarchy by a republic. In this article, Maria Ribeiro illustrates the state of public opinion and its reaction to the European war. The article uses the speeches of the party spokesmen in debates in parliament down to the final decision to enter the war on the side of the Entente powers in February 1916. It argues that public opinion was driven by three perceived sources of insecurity: fear that the great powers had designs for the taking over of Portugal's African colonies; the fear that since the establishment of the republic, the Spanish monarchy might be contemplating intervention in Portuguese internal affairs and sought to compromise her independence; and a general perception that the new republic needed to assert its international status. This last consideration, the desire to establish firm international recognition of the sovereignty of the Portuguese Republic, was probably the principal factor which moved the Portuguese political leaders to intervene in the war.     

The Unruly Past: History and Historiography of the 1932 Thai Revolution

ABSTRACT

The monarchy and the country’s military dominate discussions of Thai political history. The country’s democratic history meanwhile is much less well known. To many people, historiography – the history of the writing of history – is a dull affair that only concerns academics. But the changing representations of the origins of democracy in the 1932 revolution that ended the absolute monarchy show the politics of history as a continuous problem that still shapes Thai society. The interpretations have been bound to the bitter partisanship that has accompanied a history of political instability. This article examines the changing interpretations of 1932 in their historical contexts and demonstrates the central antagonism towards the ideal of popular sovereignty, despite its long history in the country, that is still held by the military and monarchic elite.     

Between Indigenous Paramountcy and Democracy: How Differentiated Citizenship and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Could Help Fijian Self‐determination

Contemporary Fijian politics is shaped by a colonial legacy of extraordinary complexity and political tension. Since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1970, Fiji's history has been distinguished by incoherent and inconsistent accounts of political power. These concern the political rights belonging to indigenous peoples as first occupants vis‐à‐vis the claims to political recognition by the descendants of Indian indentured labourers. The relative power between the indigenous aristocracy and commoners is a further complicating variable. Following three coups (1987 and 2006) and a putsch (2000), indigenous paramount authority has been positioned against various forms of democracy and military oversight of the political process. However, none of these political arrangements has enhanced indigenous self‐determination. This article argues that indigenous self‐determination is more likely to be realised through a form of differentiated liberal citizenship consistent with the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This reasonably requires the extension of the Declaration's provisions to indigenous Fijians, who, as a recent majority indigenous population, are constrained by colonial legacy in a similar manner to the minority indigenous populations for whose benefit the Declaration was primarily adopted.     

Selecting Constitutional Judges Randomly

This article discusses from the perspective of democratic theory an innovative proposal for the selection of constitutional, supreme court, or federal judges that aims at combining the values of expertise and political independence. It consists in combining a certification process – selecting a pool of properly qualified candidates – with a random selection among this pool. We argue that such selection procedure would better respect the separation of powers and the specific legitimacy of courts, and we champion this two‐stage mechanism vis‐à‐vis other, more traditionally employed, selection procedures. We then deal with a diversity of objections to our proposal and conclude by taking stock of both its virtues and limitations.     

Great Britain and the Norwegian constitution of 1814

SUMMARY

By the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, Norway was detached from Denmark and was to be given to Sweden. Prince Christian Frederik, heir to the Danish throne, was the Viceroy of Norway in 1814. He refused to accept the Treaty, and decided instead to establish Norway as an independent kingdom under his rule. To legitimize his claim, he called for elections to a constitutional assembly. This assembly began on 10 April 1814. The constitution which it approved was inspired by numerous sources. This article investigates the British influences upon it. It also considers how Britain's stance in the international diplomacy of the day affected the outcome. Norway did indeed enter a forced union with Sweden, but with its constitution almost intact. This constitution was underpinned by the separation of powers, which its originators associated with Britain, and was known to them from books by Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu (1689–1755) and Jean-Louis de Lolme (1740–1806). Many members of the assembly had knowledge of British politics, especially the vocal Count Wedel-Jarlsberg and Captain Peter Motzfeldt. Three draft constitutions manifested important British influences. The approved constitution also contained crucial borrowings from Britain, particularly on civil rights. The Norwegian political system scarcely resembled Britain's at that time, especially since the separation of powers was interpreted differently. Nevertheless, some aspects of parliamentary procedure derived from the British model.     

Bright Lights,Big Cities? Metropolisation,Intergovernmental Relations,and the New Federal Urban Policy in Switzerland

Disparities between increasing urban economic power and cities' limited political autonomy have put pressure on intergovernmental relations in many countries. Some authors have claimed that this process leads to a strengthening of the position of cities with respect to higher state levels such as regions or the nation state. The aim of this article is to test this hypothesis for the case of Switzerland. In the first part, we show that, due to the existing intergovernmental framework, the current dynamics of urbanisation (which we describe as “metropolization”) have produced specific problems for governance in Swiss urban areas: spillovers in the distribution of costs and benefits, new political cleavages between core cities and surrounding communes, as well as increasing autonomy conflicts between cities and cantons. In the second part, we argue that initiatives taken in order to tackle these issues of urban governance have contributed to transforming Swiss federalism. “Politikverflechtung” is increasing in urban areas. In particular, the new federal urban policy has introduced a new vertical dimension of co‐operation between cities, cantons and the Confederation. Although Swiss cities have gained new influence in the process, we conclude that cantons still hold the key position. Therefore, like other federalist countries, Switzerland has not experienced a considerable strengthening of urban governments with respect to higher levels. Nevertheless, current developments in this area can be seen as a move away from the hierarchical pattern of co‐operative federalism towards a more heterarchical pattern of multi‐level governance in Swiss intergovernmental relations.     

Kuwait's economy,the economic status of the GCC in general and bilateral relations between the GCC and SADC

Focusing more on South Africa's international cultural‐political‐economic strengths and weaknesses than on current domestic affairs, as it moves away from apartheid, this article examines the new South Africa's chances for ascent (development) or descent (underdevelopment) within the world system. Politically, the State will remain weak by international standards. Economically, it is in decline, largely because it is uncompetitive internationally; and these negative trends well pre‐date the unrest and sanctions of the mid‐1980s. It is concluded that the new South Africa will be fortunate to maintain its present position in the medium‐term.     

Reshaping EU Attitudes? The Case of Social Democratic and Radical Left Parties in Spain and Italy

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, the issue of European integration has become increasingly salient in many European polities. The European left has adopted a different stance toward European integration, both in terms of economic and welfare‐state integration. On the one hand, radical left parties (RLPs) have always opposed a process of integration dominated by neoliberal logic; on the other hand, the social democratic parties (SDPs) have appeared as one of the main pro‐EU party families, identifying the EU as a privileged space in which to promote the building of a European social model. In this paper, we propose a binary comparison between RLPs and SDPs in Italy and Spain with a qualitative content analysis methodology. Our results show that albeit the crisis brought SDPs closer to a Eurocritical stance vis‐à‐vis the social‐Europe, this dimension along with the political integration are still dividing issues for the RLPs and SDPs families.     

The Resilience of Monarchised Military in Thailand

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that conventional notions of Thailand’s military must be re-examined because they misrepresent the military’s role in politics. Instead of examining its material interests, one must also scrutinise the power and legitimacy of Thailand’s armed forces in terms of its connection to monarchy over time. The relationship between monarchy and military represents a “parallel state”, whereas the ideology, rituals and processes within this relationship result in what can be termed a “monarchised military.” The purpose of this nexus is to sustain a palace-centred order from which the military obtains legitimacy. From 1991 until 2014, the monarchised military mostly operated behind a defective democracy, although it occasionally carried out coups to re-assert the palace’s authority. Its more recent political intrusions have enhanced the military’s power on Thailand’s political stage. Civilian prime ministers have unsuccessfully sought to reign in the military, but to no avail owing to the armed forces’ close association with monarchy.     

论文莱独特的君主政体

独立后的文莱,在政治上建立了君主立宪制,虽然在其形式上可以看到英国政治体制方方面面的痕迹,但它在本质上传承了文莱传统政治文化的精髓。换言之,文莱采用了英国君主立宪制的外衣,而传统的王朝体系才是这种体制的根本。苏丹通过马来化和穆斯林政策,强化君权统治,使得文莱成为当今世界上少数几个完全由王室掌权的国家之一。