Can ‘Citizen in Uniform’ Survive? German Civil–Military Culture Responding to War

This article points out the role of perceptions, hereafter referred to as ‘civil– military culture’, that German society holds about the German armed forces. Analysing the discourse in German newspapers concerning Bundeswehr missions abroad since the early 1990s, and the engagement in Afghanistan in particular, it is argued that options to use the military abroad were circumscribed mainly to humanitarian tasks. This was so because German soldiers have been perceived in accordance with the official concept of a ‘citizen in uniform’, which has strong ethical implications, and consequently the Bundeswehr was seen as a humanitarian and rescue organisation. However, since the discourse in 2009 made it clear that the internalised civil–military culture no longer provides adequate guidance regarding how to approach a war-like situation such as that in Afghanistan, the entire German civil–military culture is challenged.     

Why Leipzig? ‘Exit’ and ‘voice’ in the East German revolution

Albert Hirschman's exit‐voice scheme provides a useful starting point for making sense of the East German revolution. Following Hirschman, it is argued that the conjunction of emigration and protest was key to the mass upheaval of 1989. Going beyond Hirschman, however, ‘exit’ is seen as relevant not only as the cumulative effect of individual emigration, but also as a political force in its own right. Different constellations between voice and exit groups then help to explain why the revolutionary upheaval originated not in East Berlin, but in Leipzig.     

Quantifying Hate: The Evolution of German Approaches to Measuring ‘Hate Crime’

This article examines and explains the rise of ‘hate crime’ as a category recognised by the German state. It documents the transition from a fluid and unspecific concern about violence against vulnerable groups in the immediate post-unification years to the formal adoption of ‘hate crime’ and its counterpart ‘right-wing politically motivated crime’ as official statistical categories. It uses theories of policymaking coupled with insights from scholarship on sociological uncertainty and policy transfer to explain the adoption, adaptation, and limitations of the hate crime concept in Germany.     

‘Made in Eastern Germany’: The PDS and the articulation of Eastern German interests

The electoral success of the post‐communist PDS has surprised politicians and academics alike. The PDS has been able to find a niche for itself within the German polity by articulating territorially salient political difference. The PDS has expanded its voter base beyond merely the politically disaffected and the former ‘Dienstklasse’ of the GDR, as it has developed into an effective articulator of eastern German interests. Western German parties have been unable to incorporate differences in eastern German attitudes and perceptions into their political platforms — leaving space for a regionally concentrated political party (the PDS) to establish itself.     

‘Decisive Victory’ and Israel's Quest For a New Military Strategy

In 2020, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the development of a new operational concept called Decisive Victory that aimed to change the way Israel fights wars and to redefine victory on the battlefield. The root cause of this change was the evolution in nonstate threats from armed groups in Gaza and Lebanon. The concept was to drive major reforms of the IDF in training, interoperability among the services, weapons procurement, and civil-military relations. However, the efforts encountered significant challenges in terms of politics, financial resources, and the implications for the IDF's force structure. This article examines these developments to shed light on the evolving way of war in the Middle East and the struggle within the IDF to redefine its posture.     

Splitting and becoming double in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness

This article explores Zakes Mda’s fascination with and deployment of the (leit)motif of twins, doubles/doppelgängers, and the notion of duality in his novels. In a close reading of The Heart of Redness, I explore how Mda dramatizes the breakdown of Xhosa society during the colonial encounters with the British and their continued impact on the present. I am also interested in the ways in which this novel animates the tensions between colonial modernity and Africanist traditionalism, while also drawing our attention to societies that do not thrive on the fixed taxonomies of rationalism. Through twinship, the figure of the double, and the notion of duality, Mda’s novel not only illustrates the complexity of the South African colonial experience, but also recuperates a historical episode that has been predominantly relegated to the margins of hysteria and delusion.     

‘The Importance of being Civil Society’: Student Politics and the Reformist Movement in Khatami's Iran

Through a non-conventional understanding of civil society activism, the article provides an explanation of the relationship between the student movement and Khatami's governments in Iran. This study approaches ‘civil society’ as a space where we may observe the dynamics and exercise of power. The case study of the interactions between the Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat and Khatami's governments illustrates how civil society is not a fixed concept, but a contested one. By analysing the conflicts and interactions between these two actors, the article examines the continuous negotiations that reinvent the meaning of civil society and produce political inclusion or exclusion.     

The ‘Arab Uprising’, Islamists and Democratization

This article surveys political activities of selected Islamists in three Arab countries in the Mediterranean region: Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Each is notable for recent growth in Islamist political activity in the context of democratization (Tunisia, Egypt) and political liberalization (Morocco). Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco are undergoing political changes consequent to the recent ‘Arab uprising’. The ‘Arab uprising’ involved country-specific yet variable outbursts of popular political anger, although not necessarily with a clear and consistent democratizing focus. Generally, protests focused on interrelated political and socio-economic demands, including: greater ‘freedoms’, improved human rights, better social justice and economic progress, especially more jobs for millions of unemployed youths. The aim of the article is to explain recent developments in relation to the ‘Arab uprising’ in three Mediterranean Arab countries – Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. The purpose is to complement the individual foci on these countries in subsequent papers in this special issue by providing a thematic overview and to locate the activities of Islamist entities in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco in comparative context.     

From ‘Dream Team’ to ‘Marriage of Convenience’? An Introduction

This introduction connects some of the main themes covered in this special issue on Chancellor Merkel's second coalition cabinet, which was formed in October 2009 and ended with the electoral collapse of the FDP in the Bundestag election of September 2013. It starts by setting out an interesting ‘puzzle’: the parties forming the coalition of 2009–2013 (CDU, CSU and FDP) had expressed a strong preference for this coalition in the run-up to the election of 2009. Despite their seeming agreement in many policy areas, the coalition formed in 2009 faced tough negotiations and conflicts between the parties from the beginning. The economic crisis the preceding government faced between 2005 and 2009 and unforeseen events during the course of the CDU/CSU–FDP coalition 2009–2013 (e.g. the Euro crisis and the Fukushima environmental disaster) had altered the policy agenda in important ways and rendered the former ‘Christian–Liberal reform project’ obsolete.     

The Worst Is Not over Yet: The Lives and Deaths of the ‘Self’ and ‘Others’ in Brazil's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper focuses on the politics of life and death in Bolsonaro's Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is argued that while this administration, and the president himself, have long supported violence against individuals and social groups they did not see as fully human, their response to the pandemic marked a public transition from valuing certain kinds of lives as opposed to others, to a general contempt for human lives. The paper explores this transition by discussing the reification of the economy to the detriment of the people who produce and consume.     

‘Making democracy a reality’? The politics of decentralisation and the limits to local democracy in Ghana

Through a case study of Ghana, this article focuses on the relationship between decentralisation and local democracy. The Ghanaian constitution emphasises decentralisation as the key means to ‘making democracy a reality’, reflecting the view common amongst international development agencies that decentralisation enhances local democracy and leads to more responsive government. This article questions such views and investigates whether decentralisation in Ghana has led to increased political participation at the local level and to downwardly accountable local government. Empirical findings are two-fold. On the one hand, relatively high levels of participation in local democratic processes are indicated. On the other, accountability mechanisms have not been strengthened, with a number of limitations and shortcomings identified at local level that undermine citizens’ attempts to hold local government and their elected representatives to account. Yet, in seeking to explain this delinkage between participation and accountability, such local issues do not provide a full explanation. Attention is thus refocused on the national context, where structural obstacles to devolved government are identified in the form of legal, political, administrative and fiscal constraints. Such obstacles are not easily overcome, however, due to the politics of decentralisation, notably central government's reluctance to relinquish control over its powers. Recent proposals for reform in Ghana's decentralisation system are considered, but political change is unlikely given the built-in advantages to the ruling party, whichever is in power. Without such reforms, though, local democracy is likely to remain more appearance than reality.     

Understanding young citizens’ political participation in Turkey: does ‘being young’ matter?

Participation is key to the discussions of democracy and justice. For all citizens, no matter their differences, having the ability to participate is a difficult but required condition for a just and democratic political community. Based on the recent research on citizenship in Turkey, this article aims to explore, first, whether young citizens’ political participation shows a different pattern when compared to the rest of the population and, second, whether being young still determines the outcome when controlled for demographical factors and economic status. We then question whether belonging to different collective identities plays a different role in the way young citizens participate, and how. Last, mostly focusing on young citizens’ perceptions of the Gezi Park protests, the paper will discuss the role of politicized collective identities in the formation of conventional and unconventional political participation.     

The Return of ‘Social Europe’: Ideas and Positions of German Parties towards the Future of European Integration

Politics in Eastern Europe. By George Schöpflin. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. £12.99 pb.

Eastern Europe since 1945. By Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1993. £10 pb.

Revolution in East‐Central Europe. The Rise and Fall of Communism and the Cold War. By David S. Mason. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992. £9.50 pb.

Surge to Freedom: The End of Communist Rule in Eastern Europe. By J.F. Brown. Twickenham: Adamantine Press, 1991. £18.40 pb.

The New Democracies in Eastern Europe. Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Edited by Sten Berglund and Jan Åke Dellenbrant. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991. £39.95 hb.

Developments in Eastern European Politics. Edited by Stephen White, Judy Batt and Paul G. Lewis. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1993. £11.99 pb.     

Religion,the churches,and the German ‘revolution’ of November 1989

The state election of 2006 in Rheinland-Pfalz resulted in a (bare) majority of seats for the SPD, which allows the party to govern alone for the first time in the history of the state. The CDU, on the other hand, received slightly less than one-third of the vote, an all-time low in its former stronghold. This result was by and large determined by factors at the state level. Yet it had a considerable impact at the federal level: it signalled the end of a string of devastating losses for the SPD, enhanced the standing of minister president Kurt Beck (now the SPD's chairman), and brought to an end the last coalition between the SPD and the FDP. These repercussions notwithstanding, there is no evidence of a durable voter realignment benefiting the SPD, since the party's victory was apparently due to short- and mid-term factors. Therefore, the outcome of the next election (scheduled for 2011) is by no means a foregone conclusion.     

‘Exempted soldiers’ in the ‘New Sensitivity Military’: public opinion among Jewish Israelis concerning selective conscientious objection (military refusal) and the Military Recruitment Model

In recent decades (the ?post-heroic‘ condition) - threats of widespread selective conscientious objection have become a political tool to advance opposing political agendas in Israel. This article examines attitudes amongst the Israeli public concerning the legitimacy of demands that different groups of soldiers be exempted from military operations to which they are ideologically opposed (such as serving in the occupied territories or, conversely, participating in evacuation of settlements). The results point to a multi-cultural model embracing diversity management not as a neo-liberal ideal but rather as a strategy for co-option, containment and inclusion, with a view to preserving the “people's army” model.     

‘Social Investment’ or Back to ‘Familism’: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Family and Care Policies in Italy and Spain

Family policies have traditionally been weak in Southern Europe. In the last two decades, however, and following a ‘catching up’ course, Spain has created new family programmes and expanded existing ones. Meanwhile, the picture for Italy during the years preceding the crisis is more of a ‘frozen landscape’. However, the diverging paths of the two countries in terms of policy reform in the years preceding the crisis do not place them in substantially different positions. The economic crisis and the austerity measures that followed have aggravated the weaknesses of family and care policies in both countries.