An Ever-Shadowed Past? Citizens’ Attitudes towards the Dictatorship in Twenty-First Century Portugal

Abstract

Several years after the transition to democracy, positive attitudes towards the authoritarian past are still observable in Portugal: the belief that the previous regime had more good things than bad things is expressed by about one-fifth of the Portuguese. What explains this nostalgic sentiment? Are factors such as socialisation under the regime, party identification or religiosity more important than satisfaction with democracy and the state of the economy? The empirical analysis suggests that the relevance of these factors varies considerably, but socialisation phases lead to different stances on the past both in routine times and in times of economic crisis.     

Identity creation and the culture of contrition: Recasting ‘normality’ in the Berlin Republic

This paper considers transformations in the concept of national identity post‐unification. In particular, it is interested in examining the changed status of the NS past in contemporary formulations of national identity. Whilst during the Historikerstreit conservative thinkers predicated the plea for conventional patriotism upon a ‘normalisation’ or ‘reladvisation’ of the NS past, left‐liberal discourse based the case for a post‐national Verfassungspatriotismus upon the critical engagement with the NS period. The collapse of the Cold War political framework has profoundly altered the polarised discourse over the German past and during the 1990s the critical consciousness of National Socialism became a central tenet of contemporary formulations of national identity. The paper attempts to place the contemporary discourse on national identity within a broader historical context and to consider reasons for recent transformations in perceptions of the German national past.     

Twenty-First Century Philippine–American Security Relations: Managing an Alliance in the War of the Third Kind

Abstract

This paper examines the changing nature of twenty-first century Philippine–US security relations. It notes that the alliance is against a non-state actor, and raises the possibility that this security arrangement might be difficult to maintain given its prohibitive governance cost and the systemic nature of the threat. It also observes that the alliance has been plagued by dissension between the two countries. In conclusion, the article maintains that these two allies have compelling reasons to revitalize and maintain their security ties. They have also developed forms of cooperation to reduce the alliance’s governance costs, iron out their differences, limitations and conflicting interests, and ensure that the partnership will remain functional in the face of new and long-term security challenges posed by international terrorism.     

A Century After: The ‘Great DIET of Vilnius’ Revisited

The Vilnius assembly of December 1905 in Vilnius, the so-called ‘Great Diet’, is now seen as a watershed in the history of the Lithuanian national movement. The event was the culmination of socioeconomic changes as well as the growing assertiveness and political diversity of the Lithuanian national movement. The assembly radicalized village politics and encouraged the Lithuanian intelligentsia to formulate a vision of a future Lithuanian political entity. One enduring consequences of the Great Diet was increased acceptance of the idea of an independent state in which ethnic Lithuanians would assume the dominant role within a multinational framework.     

Women in German Politics: Still Jobs for the Boys?

Today the proportion of German politicians who are female is at an all time high. This has largely been achieved via quotas and most of the main parties now operate some kind of quota system. But have quantitative improvements in female representation in been matched by qualitative improvements? This article seeks to answer this question by looking not only at the number of women in parliaments and other collective bodies, but also in the highest echelons of power. It outlines each party's policies regarding the promotion of women and the factors which enhance or hamper their impact. A brief comparison of female political representation in eastern and western Germany is also provided. The author argues that measures such as quotas have increased the number of female German politicians but still do not guarantee them equal access to positions of real power. Furthermore, the incorporation of pro-equality principles into party statutes has not automatically led to their assimilation into party cultures, especially in the case of well-established parties which only recently addressed the gender imbalance in their ranks.     

National unity and reconciliation in Rwanda: A flawed approach?

This article examines the Rwandan government's national unity and reconciliation policy and one of its key elements, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC). It contends that while the NURC potentially represents an innovative model that other post-conflict societies could adapt and use, the central premise on which both the commission and the government's broader national unity and reconciliation policy are based is critically flawed. The unity that they are endeavouring to achieve, as a vehicle for reconciliation, relies upon a negation of ethnicity – a core component of the 1994 genocide – and hence does not allow for an open and honest engagement with the past. The problem is further compounded by the government's attitude towards the prosecution of crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which not only demonstrates that ethnicity remains highly significant but also underscores the incomplete and partial way in which the past is being addressed.     

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.     

The First World War Centenary in the UK: ‘A Truly National Commemoration’?

Abstract

Prime Minister David Cameron has called for ‘a truly national commemoration of the First World War’. This article shows this to be problematic, politicised and contested. This is in part due to the elision of English and British histories. Scottish, Welsh and Irish responses are noted, and the role and commemorations of ‘our friends in the Commonwealth’. There are tensions around interpretations of empire and race. There has been a failure to appreciate that the debates about the legacies of the First World War are deeply entangled with those of colonialism.     

Beyond ethnoculturalism? German citizenship in the new millennium

This article examines the content of Germany's new citizenship laws against the background of previous policy, which was influenced by the original Wilhelmine goal of maintaining an ethnically and culturally pure citizenry. However, immigration has made this goal unsustainable and necessitated a more inclusive citizenship law. Based on an analysis of the new provisions in detail, it is argued that the new law marks a significant, though not complete departure from its ethnocultural past, which brings German citizenship policy into the European mainstream.     

Collectivisation in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1960–66: A Comment

This article analyses the developments of current account balances of Bangladesh since the 1950s. Available evidence suggests that the loss of the Indian raw jute market in the 1950s and the arrival of jute substitutes in the international market in the 1960s have had lasting impacts on the current account position of Bangladesh. An empirical investigation of the effects of external factors on the current account balances of Bangladesh for the 1973–89 period suggests that the real effective exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka and the economic activity in the industrial countries were the major determinants of current account balances of Bangladesh. Indeed, empirical results reject the strict version of the twin-deficit hypothesis for Bangladesh.     

Construction of Gender and National Identity in Turkey: Images of the First Lady in the Turkish Media (2002–7)

This article analyses the conception of womanhood and nationhood in Turkey through images of the First Lady in the media. It demonstrates that while there is a struggle between the secularist and Islamist media on issues such as Turkish national identity and public visibility, the secularist and Islamist discourses overlap when it comes to gender roles. In both cases, the private sphere is designated as the primary domain of women and the agency of women in the public sphere is limited by the symbolic duties they are expected to perform in accordance with the national imaginary.     

Growing up on Different Sides of the Wall – A Quasi-Experimental Test: Applying the Left–Right Dimension to the German Mass Public

This paper utilises survey data from the 1999 European Value Study to conduct a quasi-experimental analysis of the relationship between the left–right self-identification and policy preferences of Germany's electorate. Given the German division until 1990 it is plausible that citizens from East and West Germany had different ideological socialisation experiences swayed by the political discourse of their times. This paper models the influence of this diverse experience on ideological thinking, and examines the effects on the understanding of political issues. The findings suggest that differences do exist in the ideological consistency and attitude structuring of respondents. Compared to respondents in the West, East Germans are more likely to understand the term ‘left’ in socio-economic terms. On the other hand, they seem to connect the term ‘right’ rather to xenophobic issues. These results have crucial implications for political communication in representative democracies, as they question the one-level dimensionality of the left–right concept.     

Lessons Learned? German Security Policy and the War in Afghanistan

The mission in Afghanistan revealed fundamental shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of core elements of German security policy. In an effort to contribute to the debate about the factors that account for the idiosyncrasies of German security policy, the purpose of this study is to assess how far Germany learned lessons from its policy failures in Afghanistan. The study introduces a typology of learning, which is mainly based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF); delineates the German security policy belief system; and explores two prominent cases of policy failure: the deployment of the Bundeswehr and leadership of the international police training mission. Utilising different sources of data, the study confirms assumptions of the ACF about the stability of core beliefs and shows that the lack of precise policy objectives was a significant barrier to learning. Instead of clarifying Germany's strategic viewpoint, Afghanistan has further enhanced its disorientation in security policy.     

German unification: A more tangled web than we realised?

Verbatim III, 1988–1991. By Jacques attali. Paris: Fayard, 1995.

The Politics of Diplomacy. By James A. Baker, in, with Thomas Defrank. New York: Putnam's, 1995.

A Round Table with Sharp Corners. By Frank Elbe and Richard Kiessler. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1996.

Errinerungen. By Hans‐Dietrich Genscher. Berlin: Siedler, 1996.

Errinerungen. By Mikhail Gorbatschow. Berlin: Siedler, 1995.

The Downing Street Years. By Margaret Thatcher. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

Germany Unified and Europe Transformed. By Philip Zelikow and Con‐Doleezza Rice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1995.     

Remaking German democracy in the 1950s: Was the civil service an asset or a liability?

This article offers a new look at the conflicting forces behind decisions on the shape and character of the civil service in the 1950s. It is argued that the controversial measures taken to reaffirm the traditional hierarchical system and reinstate former civil servants were not only the product of policies devised by the Adenauer government and the conservative majority in the Bundestag. The inability of the Western Allies to agree on a clear course of action was also a factor, as was the support for some legislation by the Social Democrats, who were hoping to broaden their electoral appeal and improve relations with the administrative and military elites. Decision makers did succeed in moulding the civil service into an effective tool of government, and in this respect it was an asset in stabilising the new democratic system. Yet the extent to which politically compromised staff members were reinstated was counter‐productive, creating political burdens that outweighed short‐term advantages. Moreover, civil service policy bolstered traditional lines of social and gender stratification, undermining the credibility of a political system ostensibly based on the principle of equal rights and opportunities.     

Europe and the German Model: Growing Tension or Symbiosis?

Recent conflicts between the Commission of the European Communities and the German government suggest a growing tension between structures of the German political economy and the agenda of economic liberalisation fostered by European integration. Will mounting conflict ultimately force Germany to choose between its commitment to the integrity of the social market economy and support for European economic integration? This article considers the cases of Germany's public sector banks and the German postal service. Both entail potential conflict between the public service functions integral to the social market economy and the competition central to Europe's single market. Examination of these cases suggests that, rather than forcing change on a reluctant Germany and jeopardising the core of the social market economy (SME), enforcement of European competition policy from Brussels has taken place in fundamental symbiosis with the SME. Nonetheless, tensions between federal government and Länder indicate that a positive-sum relationship between Europe's single market and Germany's social market economy may be constrained by German federalism.     

“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.