The national factor in Ukraine's quadruple transition

Studies of post-communist transition in central and eastern Europe initially focused on democratization and marketization as the key pillars of transition, drawing parallels with the experiences of southern Europe and Latin America in their emergence from authoritarianism. Whilst some authors have also added a third factor-that of 'stateness', this article argues that post-Soviet transition, in particular, is not a triple transition, but a quadruple one, because nationhood and nationalism should also be added. This article discusses the centrality of nationhood to liberal democracy and then applies this to post-Soviet Ukraine, by investigating its inherited Soviet legacy and the quadruple transition it is undertaking as an independent state.     

Pacts,Parties and Elite Struggle: Ukraine's Troubled Post-Orange Transition

This article resuscitates some of the theoretical arguments of transition studies to shed light on the complex institutional and political developments in post-Orange Ukraine (2004 – 2007). In December 2004, Ukraine's elite agreed to embark on a complex transition involving power-sharing between the Rada (parliament) and the government on one side, and the presidency on the other. The new electoral law was to be based on a fully proportional system. In the subsequent period of 2005 – 2007, two consecutive proportional elections have been held, Ukraine has had several governments, and the Rada was incapacitated for a longer period. Rival elites engaged in a zero-sum game over reforms, and attempts were made to resolve differences by several pacts. This article analyses the post-Orange transition in terms of three variables: the effectiveness of pacts, the need to abide by the transition scheme, and the effect of elections. It is argued that Ukraine has failed to deliver on pacts and timetables, but has delivered on elections. This means that its political system may be considered a minimalist and electoral based one.     

‘Compliance or contradiction’? Teaching ‘History’ in the ‘New’ Ukraine. A view from Ukraine's Eastern Borderlands

Whilst much academic rigour has been devoted to analysing the ‘contents’ of historical textbooks in Ukraine, this article examines the teacher's role in the ‘transfer’ of the state's message to schoolchildren. This article demonstrates that in Ukraine's eastern borderlands teachers are highly active in negotiating the new historical narrative. Teachers are found to subtly change the accent or focus away from the ‘nationalist’ stance towards Russia, as found in the school history textbooks, to a more tolerant stance which aims to promote rather than negate Ukraine's historical interactions with Russia. Thus, this simultaneously reinforces a particular ‘regional’ understanding of historical events.     

The age factor in language practices and attitudes: continuity and change in Ukraine's bilingualism

This article analyzes inter-cohort differences and intra-cohort changes in language proficiencies, use patterns and attitudes in a society undergoing a radical political and cultural transformation. My analysis focuses on Ukraine, a country with an asymmetrical bilingualism where the new independent state mildly promotes the titular language but the formerly dominant Russian maintains an active presence in most social domains and individual repertoires. While confirming earlier findings on the small scale of age differences, this study detects the end of the inter-cohort shift toward Russian. Another important finding is that the apparent continuity with a slow drift toward the titular language in Ukraine as a whole conceals two radically different developments in the two geographical “halves” of the country. The study demonstrates an advantage of combining a synchronic analysis of inter-cohort differences with a diachronic analysis of intra-cohort changes.     

The early 1960s as a cultural space: a microhistory of Ukraine's generation of cultural rebels

This article analyzes the early stage of the Ukrainian “sixtiers” movement as a semi-autonomous space of cultural expression that was tolerated by the authorities and defined, developed, and inhabited by young Ukrainian intellectuals. In contrast to present-day Ukrainian representations of the sixtiers as a force acting in opposition to the Soviet regime, the spatial angle employed here reveals an ambiguous relationship with official institutions. The Ukrainian Komsomol organization in particular appears to be both a controlling and an enabling agent that, together with the Writers' Union, provided meeting venues for the sixtiers until the mid-1960s. This complex symbiotic relationship continued even after some creative youth pioneered the first attempts to claim public space for cultural events without the authorities' permission. The cultural terrain inhabited by young Ukrainian intellectuals was not fully separate from mainstream Soviet Ukrainian culture or in opposition to it, although their vibrant cultural space also reached into a world of non-conformist culture unregulated by the state. A series of government crackdowns beginning in the mid-1960s dramatically shrank this open, ambivalent space of semi-free cultural expression, imposing firm boundaries and forcing intellectuals to make political choices.     

从全球化浪潮看新世纪、新千年、新世界

我们有幸欣逢纪年既换百又换千的百年巧遇、千载难逢的双重良机.20世纪尽管给人类带来了两次世界大战和各式各样的灾难,也涌现了两次重大的科技革命(原子革命和电子革命)和各种丰富多彩的科技发明,极大地增添了人类的福祉.尤其是80年代以来席卷五洲的全球化浪潮,正在使世界发生巨变.全球化究竟是祸还是福?是陷阱还是天梯?它要把世界推向何处,带往何方?如何从全球化浪潮来看公元第三个千年的第一个新世纪以至新千年的新世界?这已成为人们非常关注而且迄今众说纷纭的话题.     

新局面新特点新举措--新世纪中国共产党的对外交往

进入二十一世纪,国际局势发生深刻变化,世界多极化和经济全球化的趋势在曲折中发展,和平与发展仍是时代主题。中国共产党站在时代潮头,带领中国人民继往开来,与时俱进,胜利前进。党的十六大确定了新阶段的历史任务和发展目标,为党的对外工作指明了方向,开辟了广阔空间。按照十六大提出的要求,党的对外工作积极开拓,锐意进取,取得新的成就:与社会主义国家政党交往取得丰硕成果,与周边国家政党关系全面恢复并深入发展,与广大发展     

Precautionary and Proactionary as the New Right and the New Left of the Twenty-First Century Ideological Spectrum

Despite its specific origin in the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly after the revolution of 1789, the right–left divide of the ideological spectrum has proved remarkably resilient in anchoring public intellectual life for over two centuries. In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a 90° rotation of this ideological axis, resulting in a new set of poles, each of which combines elements of the old right–left divide. The ‘precautionary’ pole brings together the conservationist side of the right and the communitarian side of the left, whereas the ‘proactionary’ pole unites the libertarian side of the right and the technocratic side of the left. I prepare the ground for discussing these new alternatives with a consideration of the political theology of the old right–left divide, which ultimately turns on alternative visions of how the past determines the future. This ‘left’ basically holds that what is possible significantly exceeds what is probable, with liberals adopting an ‘antirealist’ and socialists a ‘realist’ stance towards the prospect of an optimal social order. Both the precautionary and proactionary poles of the new ideological spectrum are fixated on our attitude towards a future in which the ontological constitution of the polity (i.e. its ‘humanity’) is among the issue under contestation. In this emerging ideological conflict, more of which is transpiring in video than in print, the precautionaries are marked as more ‘risk-averse’ and the proactionaries more ‘risk-seeking’ than had been presumed to be the normal attitude in the modern welfare state.     

Chainbuilding: A New Building for the New New School

Until a souring national and local economy led them to scale back their plans in 2008, The New School in New York City had been designing a new, 500,000-ft² “signature building” intended to embody what administrators were calling The new New School, a university committed to progressive, interdisciplinary, urban, global education. The building was to offer glimpses of the horizon of academic infrastructure and media and their potential impact—structural, pedagogic, and symbolic—on the university and its communities. Although the building will not be realized in the form presented to the public in spring 2008, the design deliberations that generated that proposal offer valuable insights into how a university might reembody its ideals in a time of intense globalization and mediatization. Complementing Robert Kirkbride’s paper on the pedagogical practice of chainmaking and its historical relationship to learning spaces, we examine in this paper how media can be instrumental in wayfinding, how they can help to organize a building into various “processual” paths that reflect different approaches to learning, and how their presence in learning spaces can enhance teaching and learning. We also discuss how the building can serve as a mediator within the community, reflecting the institution’s identity and its pedagogical philosophy.

The New Competition and the New Economy: Poland in the international division of labour

This article examines the role of Poland in the international division of labour where the context of transformation is increasingly competitive, based on knowledge and innovation. It is argued on the basis of statistics and case studies that Poland's integration into the international economy is highly uneven. The logic of trade has shifted Poland towards being an exporter of low technology and basic materials. Foreign investment, however has involved the transfer of some technological and organisational innovations. The advantages of a well educated workforce are undermined by low spending on research and development.     

Lev Gumilev and the European New Right

The striking affinities that have developed between radical-conservative movements in Western Europe and Russia since the end of the Cold War have been widely noted. This essay considers these affinities through the example of the Soviet historian and geographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912–1992). It argues that Gumilev and the European New Right developed perspectives that were highly comparable, founded on similar principles, and articulated through similar images and allusions. Yet despite the powerful resonances in terms of basic concepts and theoretical orientation, there were nonetheless deep differences in terms of the conclusions regarding the practical implications for their respective societies that Gumilev and the Europeans deduced from these principles.     

Immigration and the Remaking of New York

Abstract

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished quotas that favored European immigrants, and for the first time placed all countries on an equal footing. The law resulted in increased overall immigration, and altered the sources of immigrants to the U.S. Since 1970, New York City has absorbed 2.6 million immigrants, primarily from non-European sources, who have dramatically altered the City's racial/Hispanic mix. Using immigration and birth records, as well as data from decennial censuses, this paper examines immigration to New York and assesses the demographic impact of these flows on the City's population.

Current immigrant flows have noticeably increased the ethnic diversity within the major race/Hispanic groups. This is largely due to increases in refugee flows, and to recent changes in immigration law that allow for “diversity” visas, which are aimed at countries that are under-represented in immigration flows to the U.S. Diversity immigration has provided New York with a continuing flow of new groups, most recently from Bangladesh, Mexico, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, who have established enclaves in many of the City's neighborhoods. The increasing diversity poses serious challenges for social service and health care professionals, who need to devise new strategies to deal with the disparate socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems of new ethnic groups. This is especially important given that New York's ethnic mix will continue to be churned, especially by way of diversity immigration and refugee flows from all parts of the globe.     

柏林:在新与旧的和谐交融中

1990年10月德国统一,东西柏林也随之合二而一。1991年德国议会决定迁都柏林。1994年通过法律,决定迁都与新建工作从1998年至2000年分阶段完成。1999年9月德国联邦议院在柏林开始工作,标志着柏林重新成为统一后德国的政治中心。     

新起点新挑战新姿态新平台——记首届中欧政党高层论坛

5月的北京绿树满城、春意盎然,随气温一同日益升高的还有中欧党际交流的热度。24—25日,由中国共产党倡议并主办的首届中欧政党高层论坛在北京举行。欧洲政党对于中国共产党的高层政治对话倡议高度重视,回应积极。共有来自欧洲22个国家、35个政党及2个欧洲地区性政党、3个欧洲议会党团的高层领导人出席了论坛,