The colony of the colonized: the Duchy of Courland's Tobago colony and contemporary Latvian national identity

This paper examines the legacy of the Duchy of Courland's overseas colony of Tobago as it relates to present-day Latvian national identity using the ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and comparative cases. As Latvia is a small nation that has been an independent nation-state for only two short periods, national legitimacy and pride pose particular problems for Latvians. To this end, Latvian historians have worked to reinterpret the Baltic German-dominated Duchy of Courland as a positive period of Latvian national history and have sought to emphasize ethnic Latvian involvement in the Duchy's colonial endeavors, especially on the island of Tobago. Their efforts have then filtered into the general Latvian consciousness through books, film, plays, and place names. Since Latvia's independence from the USSR, the former colony of Tobago has gained renewed importance for Latvians who are experiencing a widely perceived notion of postcolonialism. This paper concludes that the appropriated colony of Tobago will continue to rise in importance as a component of Latvian national identity.     

The politics of purity: discourses of deception and integrity in contemporary international cricket

The International Cricket Council and civil prosecutions of three Pakistani cricketers and their fixer brought player corruption in cricket to public scrutiny once more. A range of English media commentators and the sentencing judge referred to cricket’s loss of innocence because of the deception of the Pakistani cricketers. However, commercialisation, racism and dealings with corrupt political regimes have all exposed cricket as less innocent than many of its English defenders would admit. Furthermore, the demonisation of Pakistani cricketers as cheats blurs the boundary between individual responsibility and cultural characteristics with negative consequences for Muslims in the post-9/11 world.     

Explaining institutional change in international patent politics

This article seeks to explain institutional change in international patent politics since the conclusion of the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (trips). I argue that the distribution of interests in this issue area adheres to a sharp North–South distinction, and that the pursuit of largely incompatible and conflicting patent agendas by industrialised and developing countries, respectively, has led to the gradual emergence of an international patent regime complex. Focusing on trips-plus measures under various Free Trade Agreements, patent enforcement clubs and a range of UN organisations which have recently gained relevance for international patent politics, I show how the distribution of interests in this area has led to the development of two parallel and partially inconsistent international governance structures. I conclude that the distribution of interests explains the propensity of regime complexes towards stability and change, with institutional change being particularly pronounced when overlapping interests among revisionist actors enhance the prospects of collective action.     

Putin's militocracy? An alternative interpretation of Siloviki in contemporary Russian politics

This article challenges the perception of the rising numbers of siloviki in Russian politics as a conscious strategy and expression of a more authoritarian policy direction pursued by President Putin. Contextualising the phenomenon within the framework of the system of elite recruitment in contemporary Russia, and engaging in a micro-level study of individual siloviki, the article argues that the role of these figures is more modest than often asserted and the possibility of a coordinated ‘siloviki project’ is unlikely.     

Public management in South Asia: dimensions and directions of change

Public management in South Asia has been influenced by the colonial past which has resulted in the domination of administrative systems by the bureaucrats. Bureaucracies remained firmly entrenched as powerful groups and performed both administrative and political functions. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka represent cases with similar backgrounds which opted for different political and economic systems after achieving independence. Consequently, a number of issues have emerged in public management in South Asia. These include debureaucratization of the policy process, complex relationship between specialists and generalists, integration of administrative structures, reconciliation of merit and equity, choice between professional and political patronage, revitalization of management, bridging the ever widening gap between the citizens and administrators, and the establishment of a sound ethical base of administration. The success of South Asian governments in dealing with these issues will determine, to a considerable extent, the dimensions and directions of change. While some of the issues will have to be addressed in the natural course of development, others will require a substantial degree of commitment from the governments as well as the societies.     

The presidential dynamics of leadership decline in contemporary British politics: the illustrative case of Tony Blair

The presidential analogy has provided many explanatory insights into the contemporary development of the British premiership. Nevertheless, the usage of this analytical device is almost invariably confined to the establishment and consolidation of leadership. This article demonstrates that the presidential dimension has comparable utility in accounting for the erosion and decline of leadership. In examining the Blair premiership in relation to three signature themes of the American presidency – public outreach, personalized leadership, and democratic disjunction – the analysis reveals a set of dynamics that not only provides a vehicle for political opposition but largely predetermines the nature and formulation of that critique.     

On researching ‘Ethnic Conflict’: epistemology,politics, and a Central Asian boundary dispute

Providing a critique of alarmist discussions of the danger of ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan, and the positivist epistemological assumptions and research practices that underpin them, this article develops an approach to researching ‘ethnicity’ and ‘ethnic conflict’ through the use of focus groups. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in southern Kyrgyzstan expressed similar views about the closures of international boundaries, framed in terms of ethnicity. However, this was not an essentialist notion, but rather a concept of authentic ‘Uzbekness’ or ‘Kyrgyzness’ predicated primarily on the performance of endogenous kinship practices and Muslim/Soviet notions of class morality, nuanced by geography. These overlaps and discrepancies provide resources for those wishing to articulate visions of future social formations wider than the range of options currently propagated by ethnic entrepreneurs.     

Party identity change in post-communist politics: the cases of the successor parties in Hungary, Poland and Russia

In recent years much has been written on the communist successor parties. Although much of the existent work focuses on the electoral performance of these parties or has described, in great detail, the development of single parties, this paper evaluates the utility of theories of party identity change in application to the successor parties. As an initial exploration we investigate the successor parties' programs before and after the initial competitive parliamentary elections in Hungary (in 1990), Poland (in 1991) and Russia (in 1993) to determine the extent to which poor electoral performance in initial competitive elections compelled the successor parties to alter their political identities.     

Understanding the nature of change: how institutional perspectives can inform contemporary studies of development cooperation

This article argues that core lines of sociological institutionalist thought provide a set of valuable conceptual and theoretical vocabularies for exploring and explaining contemporary concerns of development cooperation. It identifies four broad categories of issues of central attention in the current study of development cooperation, and couples these with four avenues of sociological institutional research that may provide us with theoretical and conceptual frameworks for further empirically exploring and theoretically extrapolating these. Increasing attention to these theoretical concerns not only helps us progress the study of development cooperation, it may also allow us to inform contemporary institutional thinking.     

Unpacking the unequal representation of Northern and Southern NGOs in international climate change politics

Limited research has been done on non-governmental organisation (NGO) heterogeneity and its representation in global governance. Using the example of international climate change politics, we demonstrate that Northern and Southern NGOs tend to pursue different perspectives which are very unevenly represented in international climate change negotiations as NGOs from the Global North still constitute the large majority of NGOs taking part in these negotiations. In contrast to more hopeful outlooks, NGOs, hence, do not automatically contribute to a more democratic and legitimate global governance.     

Global inequality: Bringing politics back in

Data on contemporary global inequality are dramatic, widely known and a new conventional backdrop. In research and policy economists lead the way and the emphasis is on global poverty rather than inequality. Within nations poverty is a challenge, while inequality is not; on a world scale, arguably it is the other way round. The international policy focus on poverty alleviation coexists with neoliberal policies that widen inequality domestically and internationally. A strategic question is where the data depart from the conventional wisdom. Thus a general assumption is that inequality within countries is largest in poor countries; the widest inequality, however, is found within the USA and UK. The conventional assumption is that neoliberal policies and free trade lift all tides; those countries and periods, however, where this policy has been most consistently implemented show the steepest increase in inequality. Global inequality helps sustain domestic privilege. The belief that the risks that global inequality poses can be contained in the global margins is contradicted by the cross-border effects of environmental degradation, migration, transnational crime and terrorism. In explaining global inequality, economic accounts ignore inequal relations of power. The combined policies of developmental discipline, global integration, and marginalisation and containment may be viewed as part of a single process of hierarchical integration, which has turbulence built in.     

Reforming organisation culture for quality: some psycho-social dimensions

The essential argument advanced in this paper is that to effectively reform organisation culture one needs to understand its interactive nature. The psychodynamics involved are highlighted through a discussion of a recent study and it is argued that these psychodynamics within the organisation produce a psychological fingerprint of the culture. The implications of transforming culture in this context are then explored.