Unburied Bodies — Hungarian National Identity 1989-2020

The erection of historical monuments is always an extension of national dentity — imagined by the ruling power. The current rehabilitation of Kossuth Square around the Budapest Parliament is intended to recreate its appearance as it was in 1944. The re-configuration of urban space includes removal and exchange of current monuments and statues, as well as the erection of new ones. I will analyze the case of three statues and monuments that represent distinct events in Hungarian collective memory. The construction of the Memorial of National Unity and the erection of the Memorial for the Victims of the German Occupation are both seemingly attempts to cope with separate and intertwined national traumas, that are still haunting the collective memory. The removal of the Statue of Imre Nagy is also a telling example of the transformation of national identity, and an indication of how the 1956 revolution's status has changed within the nation's collective memory since 1989. These three monuments illustrate the transformation of Hungarian national identity after the system change, and point to possible further changes in the future.     

Comment on the Economic Dimension of Soviet Interaction With the Third World

This article looks at collective memory formation—the study of monuments, memory, and public space—through a political science lens. An explicit theoretical focus on power relations in "monumental politics" and a methodological approach featuring large-N comparative analysis are combined to examine the process of monument creation, destruction, and alteration. Using a new database on monuments in 26 post-communist states over a 25-year period, patterns of monument transformation are identified, and official and private efforts to transform monuments are systematically compared across different regime types. The complex implications of private provision and alteration of monuments is also discussed.     

No Future for Germany's Past? Collective Memory and German Foreign Policy

Like most aspects of German politics and society after 1945, post-war German foreign policy has traditionally been greatly influenced by the legacy of Germany's National Socialist past and the Second World War. The semi-sovereign and divided nature of the West German state along with the strong argumentative force of collective memory in foreign policy discourse ensured a strong presence of Germany's historical legacy in both institutional and discursive terms resulting in a foreign policy which was characterised by self-limitation, a strong commitment to multilateralism and a civilian foreign policy culture. This article will argue that the interpretation of German collective memory of the Holocaust and the Second World War underwent significant changes under the red–green governments between 1998 and 2005, in particular with regard to the use of force. Although German collective memory continued to be present during this period, it lost its predictability and was used in a variety of crises to justify a range of responses, including military action.     

COVID-19 Has Exposed How ‘The Other Half’ (Still) Lives

Socioeconomic factors are heavily shaping the COVID-19 pandemic in South America. Consequently, societies are now facing the stark effects of lockdown, while largely failing to stop the epidemic. In Chile, this has been amplified by decision-makers who have overlooked critical socio-spatial aspects of the epidemic. Precarious living conditions, together with spatial segregation and unstable domestic economies, help explain why mitigation strategies remain unsuccessful. The article also explores how political frameworks for approaching these issues may change because of the pandemic.     

Balloon warriors for North Korean human rights activism: a critique of North Korean defector-activists’ post-humanitarianism

While the identity politics of North Korean defector-activists at home and abroad is revealed by unraveling the discursive complexity of their activism, little attention has been paid to the way in which that activism compromises the discursive dynamic of the defector community desiring to contest the power of a ruling paradigm within political culture. A critical analysis of North Korean defector balloon warriors who have crusaded against the North Korea regime through airborne leaflet drops at the South–North Korea border illustrates how their uncritical and unquestioned acceptance of liberal human rights can only leave the defector community vulnerable to charges of being politically-futile disparate citizens. The invocations of transnational liberal hegemonic norms obscure and undermine North Korean defectors’ agency of collective engagement in acts of liberal democratic citizenship. Understanding the propagandistic dimension of their dissenting voices can help expand the scope of analysis of liberal democratic posthumanitarian citizenship.     

A cuarenta años del golpe militar en Chile. Reflexiones en torno a conmemoraciones y memorias

The commemoration of the Fortieth anniversary of the coup d'état in Chile in September 2013 was unexpectedly intense; even so that it forced a critical revision of the last four decades of Chilean history. Like never before in past commemorations, memory was, in many ways, the central theme of the cultural-political debate, which motivated society to make a conscience examination in order to face the individual, as well as the collective, responsibilities around the coup and the dictatorship that emerged from it. This text explores some of the reasons that guided said explosion of memory, marking a crucial turn in recent Chilean history.     

“Who Was Park Chung-hee?” The Memorial Landscape and National Identity Politics in South Korea

President Park Chung-hee played a predominant role in shaping South Korean history, yet he remains a controversial figure. This paper explores the way this controversy has manifested itself in the memorial landscape and its significance within the context of national identity politics. It is argued that the debate between conservatives and progressives over the memory of Park has complicated the discourse beyond the prevalent focus on ethnic nationalism. The increasing place allocated for Park in the memorial landscape since 2008 is a tangible manifestation of a memory boom that appeared a decade earlier. Thus, the creation of an encouraging atmosphere in this regard can explain the correlation between the establishment of consecutive conservative governments and said trend. The way the memorial landscape has changed has offered an opportunity to think about a form of national identity which is more intricate. However, with the socio-political camps entrenched in their respective positions, the high-profile controversy has reflected the competing agendas and the degree to which the two sides differ on the fundamental components of national identity. The controversy over the memory of Park has thus both reinforced the divide between the political camps and demonstrated the extent to which it is deep.     

Trends in North Korean foreign policy

North Korea’s foreign policy track record in the post-cold war era is mixed. Most notable setbacks are the diplomatic normalization between the Soviet Union (now Russia) and South Korea; the reversal of its UN policy that paved the way for the simultaneous admission of the two Korean states to the world organization; and the diplomatic normalization between China and South Korea. On the credit side of Pyongyang’s diplomatic ledger are changes in its relations with Tokyo and Washington. While tangible results have yet to materialize, particularly in North Korea-Japan relations, the groundwork has nonetheless been laid for significant improvement. North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons development program has played a major role in the unfolding of its relations with the United States. Conceptually, North Korean foreign policy can be explained in terms of its quest for three interrelated goals: security, legitimacy, and development. In the post-cold war era security appears to have emerged as the most important of the three goals. North Korea is at a crossroads. The choices it makes in foreign policy will determine not only the direction of its domestic policy but, ultimately, the survival of the regime itself. The external players in Seoul, Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, and Vienna (the IAEA) have varying degrees of leverage over Pyongyang’s policy as well.     

Radical Islamism,Traditional Islam and Ethno-Nationalism in the Northern Caucasus

This study examines the interplay between Islam and collective identity and their position in potential conflicts by exploring the dynamics of Islam, ethno-nationalism and civic society within different parts of the Northern Caucasus. Historical and anthropological approaches are used for a comparative analysis of Daghestan and Chechnya in the east and of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkesia in the west. The study demonstrates the importance of local context and historical background to the understanding of ethnicity, nationalism, civic identity and their interplay with Islam. The analysis highlights that the different history and socio-cultural characteristics of the different regions in question leads to different approaches to religion which contain a paradox. In Daghestan and Chechnya, Islam is well established and the authorities have to collaborate with different Islamic bodies in their struggle against ‘Wahhabism’. In Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkesia the ‘legitimate’ Islamic leaders – whether those representing the state or leaders of other Islamic movements – are powerless. While this represents the overall weak position of Islam in these areas, paradoxically it also opens options for radical Islamists to gain support, in the context of economic hardships, weakening of other sources of identification, and corruption. This process is generated and fostered by policies that limit ethno-nationalism and expand the struggle against radicalism to a struggle against religious activity in general. The Northern Caucasus has often been perceived as a major locus of radical Islam, and as a strategic rift in the ‘clash of civilizations’. This study claims that the significant rifts and conflicts are between different Islamic alternatives. Important variables crucial to this discussion highlighted by the case of the Northern Caucasus are ethnicity, nationalism, civic identity and their interplay with Islam. At the same time, this case also highlights that the potential of radicalism in Islamic societies is not the mere result of its own ‘characteristics’, but is also a product of policy towards Islamic societies by outside actors, in this case Russia.     

The BRICS and the South Atlantic: Emerging arena for South–South cooperation

Over the past decade, power dynamics within the South Atlantic region have undergone significant changes. While the area has historically been dominated by North–South ties, both in terms of material flows and with respect to political influence, more recently there has been a surge in cooperation between developing countries within this space. As trade, investment and other forms of exchange and dialogue increase among actors from within the region (notably between South America and Africa) and with states located outside the region, the BRICS countries become more relevant to the South Atlantic. Individually, they have become relevant players in the South Atlantic's economic, political and security dimensions. Collectively, as inter-BRICS flows and political coordination intensify, new configurations of cooperation emerge within the South Atlantic. These initiatives suggest that rising powers are contributing towards making the South Atlantic – long dominated by North–South ties – a space where South–South cooperation and norms predominate.     

Federation and Australian Nationalism: Early Commemoration of the Commonwealth

Much has been written about the nature of Australian nationalism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While post-Second World War historiography analysed the role of class in nationalist sentiment, more recent work has examined the racialised and martial aspects of Australian nationalism and imperialism. There has been less consideration of how the nature of turn-of-the-century Australian nationalism affected the Federation that was established on 1 January 1901. This article examines early debates about commemoration of the anniversary of Federation, revealing an indifference to the occasion that was common to the public and most political and civic leaders, including Prime Minister Edmund Barton. It finds that popular enthusiasm at the inauguration of the Commonwealth in January 1901 and the opening of the first parliament in May was a response to imperial pageantry and celebrity, rather than the creation of the Australian federation. The article suggests that Australians’ longstanding resistance to reform of the Federation is a legacy of their historic failure to attach to it.     

Care-Politiken,Care-Arbeitsmarkt und Ungleichheit: Schweden,Deutschland und Italien im Vergleich

Social and demographic changes in western societies have led to a (re-)definition of social rights related to care-dependency and the introduction of further regulations of formal and informal care delivery. Care has increasingly become provided in the public sectors – the state, market and civic sector – and new types of cash benefits to support informal family care have been introduced. In this article, the concept of social care is used as a theoretical tool to analyse the relationship between the (re-)definition of social rights, the growth of a regular or grey care labour market and the related development of new forms of inequality according to socio-economic class and ethnicity in the female dominated area. The empirical comparison of the developments in Sweden, Germany and Italy reveals the dimensions of social rights – eligibility criteria, level and types of benefits – which are decisive for the growth of a regular and grey care labour market and the intersection of different forms of inequality.     

Two perspectives on Zimbabwe's National Democratic Revolution: Thabo Mbeki and Wilfred Mhanda

The concept of the ‘National Democratic Revolution’ (NDR) is often used by left-leaning scholars and political actors in attempts to explain or justify the lack of socialism in third-world societies governed by rulers who consider themselves ‘scientific socialists’. It has been invoked in analyses of Zimbabwe by both the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, in 2001 as he was embarking on his ‘quiet diplomacy’, and Wilfred Mhanda, a Zimbabwean guerrilla leader imprisoned by the Mozambican government in the late-1970s for posing problems to the leadership aspirations of Robert Mugabe, who later became president of the country posing problems for Thabo Mbeki among others. Analysis of both these political intellectuals’ writing sheds light on the concept of the NDR (evoked often in contemporary South African politics and Zimbabwean discourse about the current crisis) as well as the theoretical and practical aspects of the authors’ careers.     

An anatomy of dispossession: post-apartheid land rights and farm dweller relocation in the context of a private game reserve initiative,northern KwaZulu-Natal

This article is a detailed examination of the impact that the development of a private game reserve initiative in northern KwaZulu-Natal had on the lives of farm dwellers in the late 1990s. The reshaping of this landscape for ecotourism purposes – a decision taken by a group of private landowners – meant that the residents of the former cattle farms were relocated, a process which had serious consequences for them. The outcomes of relocation from the farms are explored through conversations with the relocated farm dwellers. In an attempt to convey the texture of the emotional geography of dispossession, we document both the tangible and the less tangible losses suffered from the farm dwellers' point of view, as well as their experience with the state bureaucracy. The legal and bureaucratic process leading up to the relocation is then retraced through court documents and other archival evidence. At one level, this case raises questions about the capacity of the post-apartheid South African land reform programme to secure the land rights of marginalised groups such as farm dwellers, despite legislation passed to protect them. At a deeper level, this article is about the conceptual inadequacies of the law. While the law finds it easy to render visible and to protect (saleable) private property, it struggles to fully recognise more complex land relationships. The people whose experience is described in this article felt disempowered, their lives effectively invisible. We problematise the continuing primacy of private property in post-apartheid South Africa and argue that the voices of those with other histories on the land should receive more serious attention.     

Zulu: a transnational history of a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe

This article examines the transnational ties, both real and imagined, between New Orleans and South Africa through the lens of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, an African American Mardi Gras krewe founded in 1909 and based on the popular conception of the South African Zulu of the era. While the organization’s performance of Zulu remained largely fixed, the world around it altered significantly, leading to changing outsider perceptions – and criticism – of the club. I examine how this relationship evolved over time, starting with the genesis of the organization, and how the Zulu krewe interacted with or was disconnected from the links between the two locations. As such, this work explores two parallel strands: the increasing, tangible ties between the Crescent City and South Africa – particularly economic trade – and the performance of Zulu.     

Means of production versus means of coercion: can Russian business limit the violence of a predatory state?

In their most recent works, North and his coauthors (North, D. C., J. J. Wallis, S. Webb, and B. R. Weingast. 2012. In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; North, D.C., J. J. Wallis, and B. R. Weingast. 2009. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) name the formation of organizations capable of effectively restricting violence in society as a necessary condition for transition from developing societies to societies with sustainable economic growth. However, the mechanisms of emergence and conditions for the operation of such organizations in contemporary developing countries remain unclear. We follow the logic of formation of such organizations using the case study of collective actions of the Russian business community aimed at restricting “state violence” against business. We seek to identify the conditions leading to a shift in the choice of strategies from attempts at informal agreements with extortionists controlling means of coercion to cooperation of businessmen and trace the further evolution of organized forms of collective action. Finally, we assess to what extent the created organizations can be efficient and self-supporting in the long term.     

Die drei Welten der sozialen Ungleichheit: Belohnungen,Prestige und Citizenship

Talcott Parsons’s contribution to an analysis of social inequality seems to have had a strange destiny: it was either neglected as if Parsons had not contributed to the problem at all; or it was rejected as an allegedly useless kind of functional analysis of social stratification of modern societies. However, I argue, there is no single theory of functional stratification. Rather, there are at least three versions that have to be seen as separate approaches: First, the theory of rewards as it was developed by Parsons and, more important, by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore; second, the theory of moral respect, that Parsons presented in two different versions; third, the theory of a balance of equality and inequality in modern societies that Parsons developed following T.H. Marshall’s theory of citizenship. The article presents a historic and systematic analysis of these three strands of Parsons’s contribution to the debate on social inequality. While the theory of functional stratification failed as a whole, I show that Parsons nevertheless anticipated crucial aspects of recent sociological debates, like the importance of the vagueness and fluidity of social stratification, or the crucial significance of education being the most important resource for a realization of individual life chances in modern societies.     

‘Are We Still Running?’: Violent Migration to Violent Refuge

For most foreign nationals of African origin who lived in South Africa during 2008 and 2015, this period will be remembered with horror and fear. These were the years when South Africa’s growing culture of xenophobia matured into mass deadly violence. This violence has been widely reported in the press and is the subject of much scholarly engagement. The pre-migration life stories of many who take refuge in South Africa are laden with violence but such narratives are less well known and reported. The forces at home that propel migration are frequently excessively violent and traumatic. Once in South Africa, many migrants experience further violence and vulnerability in their places of refuge, as in 2008 and 2015. The violence fuelling migration and characterising refuge are thus tragic combinations of multiple forms of physical, symbolic and structural violence. In identifying repeated cycles of trauma, dehumanisation and vulnerability, this article discusses the pleas of migrants for better understanding, formal recognition and support from South African citizens and the government. Finally, the role of peace education, including healing interventions, for creating greater justice and harmony between foreign nationals and their host communities is discussed.     

Coming in from the Cold: Grenada and Cuba since 1983

Abstract

The Grenada Revolution’s radical course was stamped by the bold turn to Cuba in April 1979. Cuban commitment to Maurice Bishop’s regime was crucial to its consolidation. In 1983 counter-revolution and invasion ruptured Grenada–Cuba ties and damaged Havana’s relations with Caribbean Community states. Since the demise of the Cold War, Havana’s survival strategy has prioritised regional integration and cooperation in the Americas. In the Anglophone Caribbean, Grenada has been at the centre of this rapprochement since 1993. Despite Washington’s disapproval, Grenada champions expanded ties with socialist Cuba. The rekindled alliance brings tangible mutual benefits and validates the strategy of South–South cooperation advocated by Maurice Bishop’s People’s Revolutionary Government and New Jewel Movement.     

The silence of the bullet monument: Violence and “Truth” management,Dusun-nyor 1948, and Kru-Ze 2004

Abstract

The so-called Dusun-nyor rebellion of April 1948 is a central and highly controversial episode in the history of southern Thailand. During the “rebellion,” Malay-Muslim villagers fought pitched battles with Thai police and soldiers. Drawing upon sources from a variety of perspectives, this article reviews these events in light of the Thai state's persistent attempts at “truth” management. What soon emerges is that the same events are understood quite differently by those of different perspectives. Using insights developed in other studies of the political usages of monuments, the article focuses on a rather mysterious “bullet monument” that commemorates the 1948 event. The bullet-shaped monument, which is located in the grounds of a police station in Narathiwat Province, has no accompanying text. Like the rebellion whose suppression it appears to celebrate, the bullet monument represents an ambiguous and confusing manifestation of collective memory. In various respects, the “Dusun-nyor rebellion” prefigures the controversy and ambiguity surrounding the storming of the Kru-Ze mosque in Pattani in April 2004. In this recent episode, thirty-two men were killed by Thai security forces inside one of the country's most sacred Muslim sites. Both the Dusun-nyor and Kru-Ze events point to the importance of looking beyond violence, and of thinking critically about the nature of “truth.”