When the exception becomes the rule: borders,sovereignty, and citizenship

Borders are a unique political space, in which both sovereignty and citizenship are performed by individuals and sovereigns. Using the work of Agamben and Foucault, this article examines how decisions made at the border alienate each and every traveler crossing the frontier, not simply the ‘sans papiers’ or refugees. The governmentality at play in the border examination relies on an embedded confessionary complex and the ‘neurotic citizen’, as well as structures of identity, documentation, and data management. The state border is a permanent state of exception that clearly demonstrates the importance of biopolitics to the smooth operation of sovereign power.     

When politics prevails: Parties,elections and loyalty in the European Parliament

In many political systems, legislators serve multiple principals who compete for their loyalty in legislative votes. This article explores the political conditions under which legislators choose between their competing principals in multilevel systems, with a focus on how election proximity shapes legislative behaviour across democratic arenas. Empirically, the effect of electoral cycles on national party delegations’ ‘collective disloyalty’ with their political groups in the European Parliament (EP) is analysed. It is argued that election proximity changes the time horizons, political incentives and risk perceptions of both delegations and their principals, ‘punctuating’ cost‐benefit calculations around defection as well as around controlling, sanctioning and accommodating. Under the shadow of elections, national delegations’ collective disloyalty with their transnational groups should, therefore, increase. Using a new dataset with roll‐call votes cast under legislative codecision by delegations between July 1999 and July 2014, the article shows that the proximity of planned national and European elections drives up disloyalty in the EP, particularly by delegations from member states with party‐centred electoral rules. The results also support a ‘politicisation’ effect: overall, delegations become more loyal over time, but the impact of election proximity as a driver of disloyalty is strongest in the latest parliament analysed (i.e., 2009–2014). Furthermore, disloyalty is more likely in votes on contested and salient legislation, and under conditions of Euroscepticism; by contrast, disloyalty is less likely in votes on codification files, when a delegation holds the rapporteurship and when the national party participates in government. The analysis sheds new light on electoral politics as a determinant of legislative choice under competing principals, and on the conditions under which politics ‘travels’ across democratic arenas in the European Union's multilevel polity.     

When market and territory collide: Thatcherism and the politics of regional decline

This article examines the politics of regional economic decline in two British administrative regions since 1979. Variations in economic problems and in government policy have combined with the presence or absence of indigenous resources to produce distinctive responses by groups and organisations in these regions. The findings highlight the strong influence of government policy in structuring the options for regional groups, as well as the mediational role played by regional civil servants. The politics of territory is alive and well in Britain, although it occurs within well‐defined parameters set largely by central government.     

When trade liberalization turns into regulatory reform: The impact on business–government relations in international trade politics

Business–government relations on trade issues are generally characterized as protectionist lobbying or – less often – lobbying for the liberalization of markets. However, with the evolution of the trading system, negotiations today concern not just market opening, but also the regulatory frameworks that structure international trade. This transformation has important consequences for the ways in which private interests can contribute to trade negotiations. Instead of simply trying to exert pressure, businesses and other private actors now form working relationships with governments based on expertise, learning, and information exchange. This article illustrates these new forms of public–private interactions with examples from the USA, the European Union, and Brazil.     

When citizen deliberation enters real politics: how politicians and stakeholders envision the place of a deliberative mini-public in political decision-making

Policy Sciences - In the wake of the increasing use of deliberative citizen assemblies in the public sphere, this article studies how traditional policy actors receive a mini-public as...     

Thinking about politics

There are distinctive modes of thinking about politics, three of which are discussed here. A mode consists of a characteristic domain of relevance, filing system, and grammar of beliefs. A person relying on Mode A treats politics as an extension of interpersonal experience. A person relying on Mode B organizes political thinking around a set of salient group identifications. A person relying on Mode C views public objects in terms of their consequences for collective goods. The three modes are illustrated by applying them to concrete issues in a hypothetical manner: Vietnam, bussing, and attitudes toward presidential candidates. The concept of surrogate attitudes is developed and various implications of the theoretical argument are discussed.     

Noam Chomsky's politics

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Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson: Justice, Society and Nature: An Exploration of Political Ecology. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Robert Elliot: Faking Nature: The Ethics of Environmental Restoration. London: Routledge, 1997.

Barbara Noske: Beyond Boundaries: Humans and Animals. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1997.

Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend, eds.: Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993

Steven Mark Cohn: Too Cheap to Meter: An Economic and Philosophical Analysis. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Jesse Vorst, Ross Dobson, and Ron Fletcher, eds: Green on Red: Evolving Ecological Socialism. Winnipeg/Halifax: Society for Socialist Studies/Fernwood Publishing, 1993.     

西部大开发中小城镇建设的政府管理

小城镇建设是西部开发建设中基础设施的基础,是西部经济、社会发展的载体.西部地区发展落后于东部地区,其中一个重要原因就是城镇建设大大滞后.为了加速西部发展的步伐,必须加大小城镇建设和管理力度,小城镇的管理是政府的基本职能.政府只有加大对小城镇的科学管理,才能更好地发挥小城镇在西部开发中的作用.     

析政治法制化

政治法制化旨在以明确的法律规范社会政治生活的有序运行、发展,并使社会政治生活真正做到有法可依、有法必依.本文从政治权力主体的法制化、政治权力关系的法制化、政治决策的法制化、政治参与的法制化等四个方面透析了政治法制化及其内涵.