The Impact of Restrictive Immigration Policies on Political Empowerment: Ethnic Organization Persistence in Early Twentieth Century St. Louis

Using evidence from early twentieth century St. Louis as an illustrative case, this paper examines the impact of restrictive immigration policies on organizational activity by and for foreign-born persons. A wide array of ethnic churches, nationalist societies, singing clubs and foreign language newspapers flourished in the city during the first decades of the 1900s. The particularities of St. Louis politics aided the longevity of such groups. Despite radical policy change, however, the persistence of these organizations helped preserve many distinctive characteristics of immigrant groups and fostered their ability to act collectively in the political sphere. The historical interpretation presented suggests that citizenship practices giving priority to liberalization of voting may not be the most obvious or effective strategy for immigrant political empowerment.     

Coalition Governments Versus Minority Governments: Bargaining Power, Cohesion and Budgeting Outcomes

Recent empirical work investigating the role of minoritygovernments in the selection of fiscal policies has shown thatthe majority status does not affect the budget size. Thispaper presents an analytical framework which accounts for thisresult. It combines a government formation game and a budgetgame involving cabinet and parliament. A general indifferenceresult applies. An exogenous shock to the bargaininigenvironment which absorbes the cohesion of the governmentincreases the demand for expenditures. At the same time theconditions for the formation of a minority government arefulfilled. If the formateur is strong, a minority governmentcan be a device for cutting expenditures.     

Ethnic Minority Representation and Party Competition in Britain: The Case of Ealing Borough

This article critically assesses claims that the Conservative and Labour Parties' neglect of Britain's non-white population is due to its relatively small size and/or its geographical concentration in 'safe', predominantly white, Labour constituencies. Rather, it is demonstrated that in the London Borough of Ealing, where non-whites comprise a quarter of the population and neither major party enjoys political pre- dominance, a number of intra-party constraints (e.g. ideology) combine with electoral disincentives (e.g. addressing non-white demands could alienate whites in the handful of electorally marginal wards which decide the parliamentary balance) to impel both parties to neglect non-white interests.     

Ethnic Politics and Women's Empowerment in Africa: Ministerial Appointments to Executive Cabinets

Under what conditions do women participate in executive power in multiethnic societies? Previous research has examined how political institutions, socioeconomic factors, and cultural norms affect the appointment of women as cabinet ministers. However, no study has assessed the extent to which the politicization of ethnicity—a cleavage that shapes political life in many countries—affects women's cabinet appointments. Focusing on sub‐Saharan Africa, we argue that women are less likely to become cabinet ministers where incumbents use such appointments to build patronage‐based alliances with politicians who act as advocates for ethnic constituencies. Using an original dataset on the composition of cabinets in 34 African countries from 1980 to 2005, we show that women's share of cabinet appointments is significantly lower in countries where leaders must accommodate a larger number of politicized ethnic groups, but it rises with higher levels of democracy and greater representation of women in parliament.     

Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Representation in Europe: Conceptual Challenges and Theoretical Approaches

This article introduces the symposium on the representation of immigrant-origin and ethnic minorities in Europe. It argues for the importance of research on this topic, noting the large, established populations of immigrant-origin citizens and their descendants across Western European countries and these minorities’ underrepresentation in elected bodies. Current research gaps concern both empirical knowledge and the theoretical conceptualisation of immigrant and ethnic minority political involvement. The article argues that existing research on representation needs to be extended to suit the cases of immigrants and ethnic minorities. It ends by providing a brief overview of each contribution to the symposium.     

Strategies of Minority Struggle for Equality in Ethnic States: Arab Politics in Israel

This paper challenges existing theories of radicalization and secession that are presented as “natural” tendencies of minority nationalism. It demonstrates the affinity between the strategies of national minorities and those of social movements, claiming that excluded minorities seek to reframe and expand the meaning of their citizenship, as do social movements, by utilizing the structures of opportunities available to them through citizenship and by mobilizing whatever resources possible to improve their status. Minorities utilize the opportunities embedded in their citizenship, despite its shortcomings, before ever moving to alternative strategies that may jeopardize the valued incentives that were achieved so far as citizens. The paper demonstrates its theoretical hypothesis by examining the changes taking place in the strategy adopted by the Arab minority in Israel. This minority has chosen to abandon accommodative politics and is adopting a more active and challenging strategy vis-à-vis the state. In contrast with common claims that conceive Arab politics as a tendency towards strategies of radicalization and confrontation with the state, this paper demonstrates that recent changes in Arab politics seek to expand the meaning of citizenship beyond liberal limits and adapt it to new conditions in order to meet the minority's expectations of full and equal citizenship.     

和谐社会视野下少数民族地区现代化战略探析

党的十六届四中全会《决定》提出了"坚持最广泛最充分地调动一切积极因素,不断提高构建社会主义和谐社会的能力"。我国发展经济、构建社会主义和谐社会的重心之一就是大力发展少数民族地区现代化,所以积极探索少数民族地区发展的现代化战略,不仅有利于地区自身发展,在构建社会主义和谐社会进程中也起着重要的作用。     

促进西部少数民族地区教育发展的政府责任思考

邓小平同志指出：“社会主义的本质,是解放生产力,发展生产力,消灭剥削,消除两极分化,最终达到共同富裕。”,缩小东、中、西部教育差距,促进教育均衡发展就变成了社会主义本质在教育系统的延伸和体现。在举国上下努力构建和谐社会、落实科学发展观和建设社会主义新农村的大背景下,由于政府对西部少数民族地区教育资源投入不足和优惠政策得不到有效贯彻和落实,目前西部少数民族地区的教育处在一个非常尴尬的地位。本文力图在对西部少数民族地区教育以及教育公平问题的研究探索过程中,提出一些能促进西部少数民族教育发展政府的责任思考。     

The European Convention: Bargaining in the Shadow of Rhetoric

The European Convention on the Future of Europe was initially presented as a turning point in the history of European integration. This article argues that, although its composition was broader, its process more transparent and its rules more flexible than classic intergovernmental conferences, the Convention was not Europe's Philadelphia. Since it took place under the shadow of the IGC and under a leadership especially sensitive to the positions of big member states, the Convention reproduced, by extension, the logic of intergovernmental bargains. Nevertheless, some of the Convention's outcome – the most formal aspects of its draft treaty with less predictable distributional consequences – can be explained by the ‘social norm’ of constitutional deliberation conveyed by its president and supported by a majority of its members.     

The Paradox of the Politically-Sophisticated Partisan: The French Case

The erosion of partisan ties observed in many advanced industrialised democracies has been attributed to a cluster of factors associated with societal modernisation. This article considers the impact of one of these explanatory factors, the political sophistication of the electorate, in the case of France. Specifically, it tests the proposition that a more highly-educated and better-informed electorate will be less partisan. Its findings challenge a number of the assumptions behind the ‘independent’ voter thesis. The evidence points to the fact that it is lower rather than higher cognitive mobilisation that is associated with apartisanship. More politically-sophisticated voters, young and old alike, tend to have stronger party attachment and to rely on this rather than on complex evaluations of issues and policy to guide their voting decision.     

文化生态视角下广西罗城仫佬族依饭节文化探析

依饭节是仫佬族人民长期生活习俗的凝聚,承载着特定历史时期仫佬族民众的诉求。依饭节是最早入选国家非物质文化遗产名录的少数民族节日,其自身起源的神话与传说、供奉的人物与祭仪、旨趣与功能都随时代变迁而变迁。在文化生态视角下,通过解析依饭节文化的起源与发展历程,探索依饭节文化的历史意蕴,就能发现其特色文化的构成基质,发现影响其文化生成的社会经济发展力量,发现依饭节文化的传承方向。此视角对于保护和传承依饭节文化、弘扬优秀民族文化具有建设性帮助,对于探讨非物质文化遗产传承问题也可提供某种思路。