欧洲的新认同政治与欧洲认同的形成

肇始于战后的欧洲一体化进程,发展到今天已经进入经济政治的全方位联盟。然而,欧洲联盟不仅仅是一个利益和目标共同体,它还应该是一个文化和理念共同体,是一个为所有欧洲公民创造情感归属的“精神家园”。而欧洲认同的建构是实现这一目标的唯一途径。本文试图从欧洲认同感产生、新欧洲认同政治,以及欧洲认同的逐步形成三个方面,对欧洲认同这一历史现象进行考察。     

The Investment-Promotion Machines: The Politics of Foreign Direct Investment Promotion in Central and Eastern Europe

A variety of foreign-led economies emerged in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1990s. State economic strategies in the Visegrad Four region (V4) of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland have converged towards a distinct model of competition states. This article investigates the politics of investment attraction and promotion of particular investors within the states and regions in Central and Eastern Europe. It analyses coalitions of social actors which form in the process of bidding for investors and promoting them in the regions. These coalitions, the investment-promotion machines, can be understood as power blocs underpinning the competition state at the regional level. The analysis draws primarily on case studies of attraction and promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.     

Righting the Resource Curse: Institutional Politics and State Capabilities in Edo State,Nigeria

Abstract

The poor record of liberal reforms sponsored by the international community in postcolonial settings underscores the real politik of institutional change. What we call a ‘new normal’ in development policy and practice foregrounds the role of agency – leadership, networks of connectors and convenors, entrepreneurs and activists – but it has less to say about the political and economic conditions of possibility in which agents operate. The putative powers of agency seem most challenged in contexts of extreme resource dependency and the resource curse. The particular case of Edo, a state in the oil rich Niger delta region of Nigeria, illustrates the intersection of agency and structural conditions to show how ‘asymmetric capabilities’ can emerge to create, constrain and make possible particular reform options.     

Poland,Germany and the EU: Reimagining Central Europe

Abstract

In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a post-Cold War ‘Middle/Central Europe’ should have been forged. How do leading German and Polish newspapers treat the categories of ‘Central’ or ‘Middle’ Europe relative to the concept of the Eastern–Western European divide and what are the discourses associated with these perspectives? At the time of a looming redefinition of the entire European project, what can media reports from Germany and Poland tell us about its future? We conclude that the media narratives in these two countries portend further tensions for European unity, since the new divisions now overlap the old ones. Our findings have implications for the future of democracy in the newly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland.     

Nation-state, nationalism, and the prospects for democratization in East Central Europe

Recent political developments in East Central Europe have resulted in contradictory and ambivalent tendencies towards the nation-state in post-communist democracies. The liberation from Soviet influence and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire have created political space for the reconstruction of sovereignty in former Soviet-dominated states. This liberation and the institutionalization of new constitutional structures has become a “national” issue. The reaffirmation and resurrection of national unity, national traditions, national culture, and national interest are current themes in post-communist politics.     

Expert Knowledge Mediation in the Relationship between Cultural Stakeholders,Politics and the State

This article is based on the general hypothesis that in Chile, as in many other parts of the world, politics has professionalized and the State has been transformed into an institution that possesses rational government knowledge (Joignant 2004). This has occurred within the framework of specific historical and social conditions that provide increasing differentiation and autonomy in both the political field and within specific government agencies. The cultural arena has also been impacted by these transformations. In this work, we will concentrate on the specific case of the cultural institutional framework that Chile has built over the past 20 years, upholding that the genesis and subsequent operation of Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes (National Council of Culture and the Arts) was determined by the inter-relationship between certain consecrated knowledge, cultural actors and the political world, where the intellectual/expert had an active participation in the whole process.     

Knowledge-Sharing Subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper investigates reverse knowledge transfer of foreign multinational subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) in the light of the current political and economic transformations of these former communist countries. The study examines whether foreign subsidiaries in the region share their knowledge base with their sister-subsidiaries and parent company, and the role of various factors in this knowledge sharing. These factors include subsidiary initiative, subsidiary autonomy, local dynamism and corporate embeddedness. A proprietary dataset is used for statistical analysis.     

Social shock in transforming Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern European societies, in spite of significant successes of transformation, are in a social shock. Economic hardship, unemployment, lower income and even poverty for many, and social polarization played a role in disappointment. The main reason of social shock, however, was cultural, the sharp collision of state socialist, and traditional values on the one hand and new values and social behavioral requirements on the other. The doors opened widely, but most of the people were frightened to enter into an unknown world. Social-behavioral changes are generations-long processes.