Imagining society: constructivism and the English School

This article critically examines the current relationship between constructivism and the English School. Scholars in each school have worked largely with stereotypes of the other, and this has greatly impeded productive dialogue and cross–fertilization. A more fruitful strategy is to treat both schools as bounded fields of debate, as rich and diverse realms of internally contested thought. Constructivism is characterized by three key axes of debate: between sociological institutionalists, Habermasian communicative action theorists, and Foucauldian genealogists; between unit–level, systemic, and holistic theorists; and between interpretivists and positivists. The English School is also divided between pluralists and solidarists, between those who identify the school with international society theory and those who see it as inherently multifaceted, and between those who emphasize interpretive or eclectic methodologies. Opening up each approach in this way enables us to identify new, more fruitful axes of dialogue between the two perspectives.     

School textbooks and assembling the puzzle of the past in revolutionary Egypt

Saudi Arabia found itself under an unflattering spotlight in the wake of the events of 9/11, perhaps more than any other country in the Middle East. The fact that 15 of the 19 suicide skyjackers were Saudi citizens provoked an avalanche of criticism in the West as well as in some parts of the Islamic and Arab world against Saudi religious beliefs, rulers, social customs, and school curricula. This article traces the Wahhabi Post-9/11 ideological “self-examination” of relationships with non-Wahhabis. Emphasis will be placed on the current Wahhabi perceptions of the fundamental terms of “other” and “otherness” that are most likely to affect relationships between the Wahhabis and other cultures and religious groups. I argue that post-9/11 Wahhabi Islam acknowledges the problematic nature of its traditional perception of the ‘other’ and, therefore, is making significant and unprecedented efforts to reformulate and redefine religious doctrines, such as jihad, tolerance, interfaith dialogue and so forth.     

The revolutionary pacifism of A.J. Muste: On the backgrounds of the Pacific War

Abstract

In the summer of 1977, two journalists, John Barron and Anthony Paul, published a book which in the United States was entitled Murder of a Gentle Land and in Britain Peace with Horror. In both cases the subtitle was The Untold Story of Communist Genocide in Cambodia. The authors are both working at the institution, The Reader's Digest, which publishes a monthly appearing in 32 countries in 13 languages. In February 1977 The Reader's Digest published a summary of their book which thus became available to more than 30 million readers all over the world.     

Together again: reuniting political theory and international relations theory

This state of the discipline article discusses a body of recent literature that seeks to reunite political theory and international relations theory. It briefly explores some of the factors and explanations that led to a divorce between the sub-fields of PT and IR. The article proceeds to review work that seeks to bridge the dichotomy that came to define the relationship between these two academic fields of study. By examining literature in the area of normative theory, democratic theory and that falling under the rubric of identity and difference, the article attempts to demonstrate that an effort is under way to reunite political theory and international relations theory.     

Reflections on Schurmann's theory of the state

Abstract

Were Marx alive today he might be moved to comment on how quickly the next “revolution” materialized, that is to say, how quickly certain disciples of his, like Lenin and Stalin, substituted political organization and the power of the state for the proletariat as the agency of revolution. Perhaps Marx would recognize that the state merited more attention than he gave it, for in this century it seems clear that state power has functioned more autonomously than Marx implied in order to preserve capitalism, by ameliorating its fundamental contradictions; and to put off, even pervert, that socialist revolution which originally envisioned the proletariat assuming the central, world-historical role. In recent years Marxist critics have been filling this lacuna in Marxism with a profusion of writings on the role of the state in its absolutist, capitalist, and socialist variants. It was into this milieu that Franz Schurmann stepped with his Logic of World Power, containing within it a “theory of the state” that I find both interesting and flawed, a theory that offers much to the current debate on the role of the state, and yet one that has been largely ignored by Marxists and non-Marxists alike.     

Development theory and Third World industrialisation

This article examines the industrial climate in Taiwan as a result of environmental regulation and activism through a survey analysis of 35 petrochemical firms on the island. The research finds first that the regulatory climate is resulting in economic uncertainty among firms as to if and when to comply with regulations leading to continued pollution control mismanagement. Furthermore, the research finds that the character of much of the environmental activism is detrimental not only to further industrial development, but also to environmental protection.     

Greening growth in the South: practice,policies and new frontiers

Today's development model promotes the exploitation of natural resources regardless of the consequences for the environment or the impact that the quality of the environment has on people's lives and livelihoods. Without a shift in current consumption and production patterns, a sustainable model of development is out of reach. The 1992 Earth Summit acknowledged the need to marry growth and environmental sustainability, but more than 20 years later the world still lacks concrete goals, commitments, benchmarks of progress and frameworks to secure benefits across social, economic and environmental dimensions. The global South is emerging as a green growth laboratory, with innovation and creativity to tackle these concerns. This article analyses these efforts in the context of public policy, and shows that both positive and negative patterns in practice and policy are emerging, which should be considered as broader global green growth efforts are further consolidated and the post-2015 development agenda is being defined.     

New public management and the Thatcher healthcare legacy: enough of the theory, what about the implementation?

Initial evaluations of Thatcherism suggest that it represented a policy formulation success but implementation failure (Marsh and Rhodes 1992), with healthcare reforms particularly unsuccessful because they did not challenge the autonomy of the medical profession (Wistow 1992a and 1992b). More extensive analyses of the implementation of new public management (NPM) within health care take this challenge more seriously. According to Ferlie et al. (1996), doctors were gainers and losers, since the rise of the management function coincided with a rise in medical involvement in management decisions. However, this article argues that the rise of the purchasing function of health authorities undermined this 'gain' to the medical profession. Further, the significance of the case study—AIDS policy in Scotland—is that profound change has occurred in a policy area in which one would least expect this to happen.     

Muslim identity and Islamic practice in post-Soviet Central Asia

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly independent countries of Central Asia had the opportunity to endorse religious freedom. Nevertheless, they chose for the most part to continue the policy of monitoring religious activity, on the pretext of protecting their countries from radical Islam. This study focuses on Islamic praxis in post-Soviet Central Asia. Based on a survey conducted in four Central Asian successor states (excluding Turkmenistan), it examines everyday Islam – observance of precepts, life-cycle rites, prayer and mosque attendance – as well as people's perceptions about the role of Islam in their lives and in the evolution of their societies and the place of Islam in local identity. The authors' findings have not always corresponded to usually accepted hypotheses and they have sought to analyse the reasons for this. Undoubtedly, the exigencies of the current political situation both act as a restraint on respondents in addressing the questions put to them and restrict their religious praxis outside the home. It is difficult to assess how far responses would have differed had the survey been conducted under more favourable circumstances; indeed, some of the questions may have been genuinely misinterpreted as a result of differences in outlook and the use of concepts.