Más allá de la representación y del clientelismo: hacia un lenguaje de la intermediación política

This paper proposes rethinking conceptual scopes of the term “political mediation”, in order to illustrate the analytical scope of indirect politics, whose range of possibilities has usually been thought of as if contained between the extremes of political representation and patronage. An analytical exercise is offered as one possible and tentative path to specify not only a vocabulary which is more sensitive to the demands of the present but to –in the words of Bunge– allow the initial reinterpretation of old symbols of our political vocabulary. To this end, in addition to a linguistic and conceptual journey of the term “intermediation”, three analytical dimensions of indirect policy are developed; thus facilitating dialogue with theories of representation, and leading to an analytical model that we call “cube of indirect politics”. We conclude with a brief case classification exercise intended to show the displacements produced by this model in understanding certain indirect political experiences.     

Personal Politics and Being British: Political Rhetoric,Democracy and their Consequences in Colonial New South Wales

This paper argues that although our understanding of politics in colonial New South Wales in the period after 1856 has increased in recent times there is little appreciation of the political rhetoric employed to justify those politics. It contends that the key to understanding that rhetoric is an appreciation that politics was not understood in terms of institutional design but focused rather on the quality of political leaders. In particular, as exemplified by the case of Henry Parkes, it involved being British and being able to work British institutions. This emphasis on personal politics, rather than institutional matters such as the creation of checks and balances, helped to shape the nature of democratic institutions in Australia. In particular it encouraged a form of democracy that concentrated power. The refusal of members of the Legislative Council to oppose the Influx of Chinese Restriction Bill is an early indication of the consequences of that form of democracy.     

Political liberalization in the People's Republic of China: Its linkage to the Mainland-Taiwan reunification

This article examines the impact of China's liberal political reforms on its reunification with Taiwan from the perspective of linkage theory. Through the liberalization of domestic politics, the post-Mao leadership has effected a fundamental change of regime type, transforming the Maoist totalitarian state to an established single-party regime. Because of this change, the Chinese Communists have increasingly considered China more as a developing country than a Marxist regime that needs a favorable regional and international environment for implementing its modernization programs. This has led to the emergence of a secular and stable China. The liberal tendencies in internal politics have produced four domestic-international linkages favoring China in the settlement of the Taiwan issues. Despite the presence of some negative linkages against China, it seems that the post-Deng leadership can take charge of the reunification issues as long as they can continue to make progress in institutionalizing its political system and in liberalizing its monolithic institutions.     

Opposition politics in a democratic South Africa

This article assesses the state of opposition politics in the period of early democracy in South Africa, 1994–95. It contrasts the reality of a broad range of vigorous political opposition with the actuality of relatively poor parliamentary party‐political opposition. In considering these two trends, this article argues for an inclusive conceptualisation of opposition politics ‐ a conceptualisation which includes the whole range of forces of political contestation, and not just party politics. The range of these forces is explored in the article, which while acknowledging that opposition politics can be vibrant, despite limited party‐political opposition in parliament, concludes by pointing out that it is only one step towards a more realistic understanding of their role in the consolidation of democracy. The other essential requirement is full government transparency regarding all matters involving political contestation.     

L'émergence d'une discipline scientifique. La création de l'Association Suisse de Science Politique (1951‐1959)

This article presents the results of a historical research on the creation of the Swiss Political Science Association in 1959. A first attempt of creation had failed eight years before, despite a favourable international context and the important scientific work of Marcel Bridel. Although Bridel was supported by several leading figures of the early political science, his proposal was met by the hostility of his colleagues, who had a historical, philosophical or juristic background. On the other hand, a few years later Jacques Freymond managed to create the Association in an almost administrative way and without any scientific discussion. The contrast between these two attempts illustrates the ambivalence of the institutionalisation process of Swiss political science since 1959. The institutional logic was more important during the creation of the Association than the scientific dimension, but has nonetheless been a useful basis to promote further scientific efforts. This initial ambivalence has had durable effects on the discipline, which obtained academic legitimacy without clearly taking position neither on its basic object, nor on its specificities with respect to the other social sciences or even ordinary discourses on politics. This has led to a disciplinary identity that is contingent, uncertain and fragile, and which calls for an epistemological reconsideration of the intellectual autonomy of political science.     

Turkey's Application of the Montreux Convention in the Second World War

The primary aim of this article is to examine the policies of the elite in Iran in relation to political parties and organizations that have emerged between 1979 and 2009. It also attempts to argue that the politics of factionalism has proven to be incapable of creating a viable political system. On the other hand, it has been difficult to anticipate the emergence of a system based on party politics in Iran more than three decades after the revolution. The findings of this article demonstrate how determined the elite were in shaping politics in Iran, and will also show that the move away from factionalism to a system based on party politics between 1997 and 2009 faced stiff opposition from the conservative elite. The situation polarized politics in Iran and further increased intra-elite factionalism. This article relies mostly on Iranian primary sources, accessing opinions that have not yet been published or discussed. The focus is on examining the relationship between high-ranking members of the elite and organizations representing different interests within the system that came to existence either before or immediately after the revolution in 1979.     

对地缘政治三大常混问题的辨析

在地缘政治的研究中,存在着对地缘政治与地缘政治学、地理政治和政治地理学的混淆.地缘政治是现实政治的现象之一,地缘政治学是一种知识体系;地缘政治是围绕地理空间的控制权展开的人与人之间的关系,而地理是讲自然范畴的关系, 地理条件与地缘政治是或然关系,将地缘政治翻译成地理政治似乎欠妥;地缘政治论是政治学范畴的知识体系,政治地理学是地理学的内容之一,两者属于不同的知识领域.     

马来西亚华人社团大选诉求事件探析

在1999年马来西亚大选前夕,马来西亚2095个华人社团共同向参与竞选的各政治派别提出了一系列的社会政治诉求,旨在改变那些他们认为是不公平的社会政策,特别是种族间的不平等。诉求运动取得了一定的成就,但也引发了一定范围内华巫种族关系的紧张。为消除这种紧张关系,双方互有妥协,部分关键诉求最终被迫搁置。该诉求是一次典型的政治参与运动,有着特殊的历史与现实背景。新经济政策实施以后,华社已有多次诉求提出,1999年的大选和巫统的分裂则为其再次提供了现实机遇。然而,由于诉求提出的民间性、偏向性、时效性等特征,该运动因遇到诸多问题并未坚持久远。不过,诉求事件为华社政治参与留下了宝贵的经验教训,使之日益成熟。     

Elite Relations in Germany

Traditionally, Germany has had a segmented elite with little interchange between economic, cultural, political and military elites. Although borderlines have become somewhat more permeable (except for military elites), the professionalisation of politics as a career has led to a political class in a static sense, that is, when it comes to securing common privileges. Political decisions, however, are not controlled by a unified political class but are the result of a complex decision making process involving a wide range of elites extending beyond the political class.     

Beyond German Politics: Comparing European Polities Explicitly

The reluctance of British political science to continue an earlier comparative politics tradition did not deter Gordon Smith from steering a path between a predominant false particularisation and a minority push towards false universalism. A comparison of the first and fifth editions of Politics in Western Europe shows the continuing thrust of a political sociology approach, with political and social structures and forces having priority over constitutional and institutional provisions. Unapologetically 'old-fashioned' in eschewing law-like generalisations, comparison's prime purpose is to improve our understanding of individual countries: in Gordon Smith's case, it started and finished with Germany.     

Telling the Truth About Empire? A Word on Methodology

Empire/imperialism are terms that re-emerge with patterned frequency. Claims that the Australia United Kingdom and United States agreement is imperial, that an Australian empire exists, or that coloniality continues after the end of formal colonialism are all made without connecting colonialism, settler-colonialism, coloniality, or sub-imperialism to the larger whole of which it is a part — empire. At the same time, political science has begun to make claims about empire as a particular type of politics and comparative historical literature has also emerged. This paper argues that empire should a site of inquiry for any decolonial project and elaborates what would be involved methodologically. It engages the question of methodology by comparing different approaches to the study of empire. My argument is that the interpretivist approach is the more methodologically robust principally because it raises a series of unresolvable methodological problems. I argue that study of empire, as a particular form of politics, is not just a social scientific question, it is an ethical normative question. I argue that it is politically necessary for the decolonisation of knowledge to broach the question of empire and its methodological problems. Only when we know the truth about empire, can we confidently contribute to a politics that would be post-imperial.     

Monetisation of electoral politics and the challenge of political exclusion in Nigeria

This paper argues that money has become the deciding factor in Nigerian politics. It has served the purposes of consolidating elite rule as well as the political exclusion of the non-elite. A discernible ‘ritual of money politics’, has enabled the power elite to remain in power, and new comers to develop the elite character. This paper concludes that money politics is at the heart of the general crisis of democracy and governance in Nigeria, and unless this is mitigated, reforms aimed at bringing about good governance and curbing other anomalies in the political system may not produce the desired results.     

Hyper‐Securitization,Everyday Security Practice and Technification: Cyber‐Security Logics in Switzerland

This contribution to the SPSR debate about technology and security in Switzerland looks at how and by whom cyber‐security is constructed in Swiss security politics. Using three securitization logics as developed by reflexive Security Studies – hyper‐securitization, everyday security practices, and technification – it illustrates how Swiss actors have sorted out roles and responsibilities over the years. The article suggests that all three logics are present in the political process, but that ‘technification’ – a way to construct the issue as reliant upon technical knowledge and the supposition that this serves a political and normatively neutral agenda – is currently the dominant one. For democratic politics, technification is a big challenge. Assigning an issue to the technical realm has a depoliticizing influence and makes contestation from those with less technical expertise very hard.     

Partidos políticos e innovación democrática: más allá de purezas y perversiones

This article aims to review the conceptual import of the term “political mediation”, to shed light on the analytical reach of indirect politics, whose scope of possibilities has been usually thought of as confined within the opposites of political representation and clientelism. An analytical exercise is put forth as a possible and tentative means not only to establish a vocabulary which may be more sensitive towards present time demands, but also to –in Bunge's words– initially allow for the reinterpretation of older symbols of our political vocabulary. Towards this goal, besides a linguistic and conceptual itinerary of the term “mediation”, each of the three analytical dimensions of indirect politics is developed, favoring dialogue with theories of representation, which channels into an analytical model we call the “cube of indirect politics”. The article ends with a brief case-classification exercise aimed at showing the displacement produced by the model in the understanding of given experiences in indirect politics.     

Changes in the handling of corruption scandals in Japan since 1994

Over the last fifty years, the Japanese political landscape has been shaken from time to time by the exposure of corruption scandals. In 1993, a multiparty coalition won government in Japan and initiated a package of reform legislation that was passed by the Diet in 1994. The system of legal controls was tightened, penalties for wrongdoing were increased, and the flow of money in politics was made more transparent. However, after more than five years of debate about reform and putting an end to money politics, corruption is still prominent in Japanese politics, and the number of corruption scandals even seems to be growing. Dr. Verena Blechinger of the German Institute for Japanese Studies analyzes how corruption scandals were handled up till 1993, and how this has changed since. She argues that the process of political reform since 1994 has brought about change in the structural framework of the Japanese political system which has caused a shift in relations between the three main political elite groups.     

当代马华报刊文本中的华族政治参与意识表达

本文通过对《星洲日报》和《南洋商报》及其他马华主要报刊相关言论和社论的文本分析,揭示了20世纪80-90年代期间马来西亚华人政治参与意识的变化,包括民主政治思想的启蒙,民主政治实践的探索,以及超越种族政治的发展变化过程。     

文莱华人现状分析

文莱现有华人3.76万,集中在城镇居住,是文莱城市化水平最高的族群.在"马来、回教、君主"政治制度框架下,华人的公民权受限制,加入其国籍非常难,没有政治诉求的机会;在经济领域里马来人优先,但华人有较大发展空间;在社会生活领域,华人可组建社团,参与公众活动,政府允许华文教育生存发展;华人宗教信仰自由,可维持华人意识和华族认同,但必须效忠苏丹;华人和马来人能和睦相处,没有种族纠纷.     

The attentive spectators: Political participation of the Hong Kong Chinese

Based on a large-scale territory-wide questionnaire survey, this study purports to delineate the pattern of political participation of the Hong Kong Chinese. It is found that though the overall level of participation remains low, political activism has nonetheless increased since the early 1980s. Political participation in Hong Kong is primarily parochial and conventional in nature, yet there also exists a significant expressive and unconventional component. The mode of participation is fragmented and largely individualistic. Hong Kong Chinese are increasingly inclined to take collective actions, but participation mobilized by political groups is still limited. Hong Kong Chinese however pay much attention to politics. In view of the coexistence of high cognitive participation and low behavioral participation, Hong Kong Chinese can be appropriately described as “attentive spectators.” He is the author ofSociety and Politics in Hong Kong (1982) andHong Kong Politics in the Transitional Period (in Chinese, 1993)     

Urban political machines and student politics in “middle” Bangladesh: violent party labor in Rajshahi city

In response to the mostly Dhaka-centered research on student politics in Bangladesh, this article aims to understand political competition, the role of patronage networks, political organizations, violence, and student organizations in the provincial city of Rajshahi. The article explores how student politics in Bangladesh shapes (and is shaped by) the political dynamics in “middle Bangladesh.” Student groups in Bangladesh are closely affiliated to political parties and serve as their most important source for mobilization in a party-political regime commonly referred to as a “partyarchy.” Campus politics is deeply integrated into the urban party-political machine in Rajshahi. Controlling Rajshahi University (RU) provides a steady flow of party workers for the local party machine. Thus, the RU campus is a space for organizing political (and violent) labor as well as an important source of revenue for and the distribution of benefits by local party bosses. The urban party machine, however, is not mechanically held together merely by the dispensation of inducements – instead, it is more chaotic and contingent on a form of strategic ambiguity that disguises the structuring effects of patronage power that keeps members motivated and engaged.     

The Tian Anmen massacre

The aftermath of the 2008 general election saw a series of upheavals occur in the Malaysian political landscape, not least of which was the emergence of a so-called “new politics.” Driven primarily by concerns over issues of public governance, this politics contained a set of interrelated questions involving changing notions of legitimate political authority. Although much has already been written about whether or not the post-2008 changes to Malaysia's socio-political terrain are genuine and enduring, I argue that many such analyses are too narrow in scope and fail to adequately recognise the complexity involved in such social realities. By distinguishing between the images and practices of the Malaysian state, this article aims to highlight the dynamic, contingent and contested nature of processes of legitimation. A detailed investigation of the consensus/dissensus surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak's concept of 1Malaysia as the basis of a collective national identity reveals a more fundamental contestation occurring within contemporary Malaysian politics and society over the source(s) of political and moral legitimacy. While the opposition's challenge to Najib's administration remains formidable, of more pressing concern to Najib might be the objections arising from within his own party over the direction in which he is taking them. To define the present horizon of socio-political possibilities in Malaysia it is not enough, therefore, to simply explain how legitimation occurs; we must also be able to account for the way(s) in which it can occur.