Reshaping Civil Society through a Truth Commission: Human Rights in Morocco's Process of Political Reform

¹Observers of Moroccan politics have debated extensively thesignificance of the country's ‘top-down’ liberalization.At this point, there is no definitive verdict on palace-guidedreforms, such as the recent Equity and Reconciliation Commission(IER). Rather, these reforms have left an ambiguous legacy.This article uses the IER – a truth commission establishedin 2004 to examine past human rights abuses, compensate victimsand ensure nonrepetition – as an analytical tool to understandhow transitional justice carried out as a strategic measureof top-down liberalization can reshape the relationship betweencivil society and the state. While the monarchy's reform effortsin Morocco have not (as of yet) led to a civil society capableof supporting a stable democratic transition, the article arguesthat these efforts have increased civil society's expectationsof gaining capacity and space to implement ethical goals anddemands. Greater expectations, in turn, have altered how themonarchy must calculate its survival strategy.     

Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice, Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Javier Mariezcurrena * Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground, Erin Daly and Jeremy Sarkin

It took a long time to get there but, near the close of thelast millennium, humanity embraced measured accountability –instead of the extremes of impunity or vengeance – asthe appropriate fate for perpetrators of mass atrocity. Thisembrace has prompted the construction of institutions, suchas the International Criminal Court and the various ad hoc internationalor internationalized tribunals, to actualize this accountabilityimperative. But this institution-building is only the start of the justicematrix. It is not the end point. A newer second generation ofscholars and activists presses on. Agreeing on the need foraccountability does not mean that existing methods of accountabilityshould become insulated from study or critical inquiry withregard to their progress toward justice goals. Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century and Reconciliationin Divided Societies are bold trendsetters for this second-generationliterature. Edited by Naomi Roht-Arriaza and     

Forensic Science for Cambodian Justice

¹Cambodia is universally associated with its killing fields– a horrific inheritance from the Khmer Rouge era. Whilstmass grave evidence from that era is referred to in historyand social science publications on Cambodia, it has not featuredin a legal context to date. The establishment of the ExtraordinaryChambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) creates an opportunityfor a review of this evidence 30 years after the events. Thosealleged to be accountable for Cambodia's killing fields arefinally being brought to justice. The question is whether thiswill occur with or without forensic science evidence from themass graves. This article explores the reasons for using forensicscience in the Cambodian context and outlines its potentialfor legal proceedings. Drawing on relevant literature in theforensic and legal areas, the article provides a brief outlineof the legal context created by the ECCC and examines variousprojects that have recorded evidence relating to the mass graves.Employing an analysis of semistructured, in-depth interviewswith forensic and legal experts as well as representatives fromthe ECCC and the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam),the article explores the value of forensic science for the ECCC,including its impact on humanitarian issues in Cambodia.     

The Capture Theory of Regulations—Revisited

Amidst the rekindled interest in regulating the market that has emerged since the 2008 financial crisis, most attention has been paid to the debate between those who call for more regulation of the private sector in order to protect the public good, and those who claim that such regulations would do further damage to the economy by unduly constraining business. This essay seeks to refocus the debate about regulation by examining an alternative criticism––the theory of regulatory capture––which argues that regulations are routinely and predictably 'captured' and manipulated to serve the interests of those who are supposed to be subject to them, or the bureaucrats and legislators who write or control them. Ample evidence suggests that regulatory capture is indeed widespread and takes a variety of forms, which are reviewed here. Rather than debating whether more or less regulations are needed, the paper suggests that what is needed is a way to make regulations stronger––more capture-proof. It closes with a major policy change that would help accomplish this goal.

Are There Universal Collective Rights?

The first part of the paper focuses on the current debate over the universality of human rights. After conceptually distinguishing between different types of universality, it employs Sen’s definition that the claim of a universal value is the one that people anywhere may have reason to see as valuable. When applied to human rights, this standard implies “thin” (relative, contingent) universality, which might be operationally worked-out as in Donnelly’s three-tiered scheme of concepts–conceptions–implementations. The second part is devoted to collective rights, which have recently become a new topic of the human rights debate. This part provides the basis of political–philosophical justification and legal–theoretical conceptualization of collective rights, as rights directly vested in collective entities. The third part dwells on the problem of universality of collective rights. It differentiates between the three main collective entities in international law—peoples, minorities, and indigenous peoples—and investigates whether certain rights vested in these collectives might, according to Sen’s standard, acquire the status of the universal ones. After determining that some rights are, in principle, plausible candidates for such a status in international law, this paper concludes by taking notice of a number of the open issues that still need to be settled, primarily by the cooperative endeavor of international legal scholars and legal theorists.     

Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence

¹Since the end of the Cold War, the international communityhas become increasingly involved in peacebuilding and transitionaljustice after mass violence. This article uses lessons frompractical experience and theories of peacebuilding and transitionaljustice to develop a model of transformative justice that supportssustainable peacebuilding. This model is holistic and transdisciplinaryand proposes a focus on civil society participation in the designand implementation of transitional justice mechanisms. It requiresus to rethink our focus on ‘transition’ as an interimprocess that links the past and the future, and to shift itto ‘transformation,’ which implies long-term, sustainableprocesses embedded in society and adoption of psychosocial,political and economic, as well as legal, perspectives on justice.It also involves identifying, understanding and including, whereappropriate, the various cultural approaches to justice thatcoexist with the dominant western worldview and practice. Asyncretic approach to reconciling restorative and retributivejustice is proposed as a contribution to developing transformativejustice and sustainable peacebuilding. The development of thistransformative justice model is informed by field research conductedin Cambodia, Rwanda, East Timor and Sierra Leone on the viewsand experiences of conflict participants in relation to transitionaljustice and peacebuilding.     

Natural Disaster Relief and Horizontal Equalization in Australia

The commonwealth government's natural disaster relief policyover the period of 1970–1971 to 1977–1978 requiredeach state to undertake a particular "base" expenditure on naturaldisaster relief before Commonwealth assistance was payable.This article examines the impact of this policy on "horizontalimbalance" between the states, an imbalance which arises becauseof differences in fiscal capacity and/or differences in thecost of providing public services between the states. It isconcluded that the policy exacerbated rather than counteractedthis particular imbalance. A set of "base" expenditure requirementswhich takes this imbalance into account is then calculated. ^* The financial assistance of a research grant from the ReserveBank of Australia and the assistance of the Centre for Researchon Federal Financial Relations at the Australian National Universityare gratefully acknowledged. The advice and comments of R. L.Mathews and W. R. Lane are also acknowledged.     

Small City Autonomy in the Federal System: A Study of Local Constraint and Opportunity in California

How severe have been the restrictions on the autonomy of localgovernments, as state and federal mandates and grant programsproliferated in the 1970s? This study of mandate and grant impactsin nine, small California cities suggests that local controlhas not been reduced as much as the recent literature of federalismargues. Municipal officials in these communities perceived arange of effects according to program areas. Clean water standardswere negatively viewed, while state planning mandates actuallyserved to further local goals. Most of the cities did not hesitateto compete for grants, despite their many strings. Based onthe "hard case" of small cities—which are relative newcomersto grant and mandate programs, and generally change-resistantin attitude—this study points out some positive localgovernment impacts of federal-and state-local entanglements. ¹ As associate investigator of the project on which this paperis based, Joan Hogan of the Institute of Governmental Affairs,University of California at Davis, contributed significantlyto the research.     

Local Policy Determinants in a Centrist System

The study deals with determinants of local policy outputs inIsrael's centrist system. It compares the effects on local expenditurepolicy of political and socio-economic variables, as well asthe roles of tax revenue and central aid. Tax is analysed asan intervening variable between socio-economic factors and localpolicy, rather than as a policy output (the traditional conception);our findings indicate that tax is indeed an intervening variable.Government aid is also seen as an intervening factor which affectsvaritions in local policy outputs. Data indicate a two-stageprocess in which socio-economic factors affect the tax leveland government aid—which, in turn, affect policy outputs.The casual ordering of these findings is estimated through pathanalysis. ^*Special thanks are due to Mr. Uri On and Mr. Pinchas Kahanahfor their invaluable help in producing this paper and to Ms.Nechama Schpack for her help with processing the data.     

White trash: Eugenics as social ideology

She is coeditor of Judge, Lawyer, Victim, Thief: Women, Gender Roles, and Criminal Justice;author of, published by Northeastern University Press, White Trash: The Eugenic Family Studies, 1877–1919,from which this article is adapted with permission; and author also of Partial Justice: Women in State Prisons, 1800–1935.     

Getting Out the Vote: Minority Mobilization in a Presidential Election

Despite attempts to mobilize communities of color, gaps in turnout among racial and ethnic minorities persist (e.g., Abrajano et al., J Polit 70:368–382, 2008; Pantoja et al., Polit Res Q 54:729–750, 2001; Kaufmann, Polit Res Q 56:199–210, 2003; Ramirez, Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 601:66–84, 2005, Am Polit Res 35:155–175, 2007). Scholars are only beginning to understand how parties or independent groups seek to mobilize these communities. In this paper, we develop and test the Differential Contact Thesis, which holds that turnout differences between whites and minority groups are influenced both by lower rates of contact by the parties and the use of less effective methods of contact. To test this, we examine data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Study (NAES), 2004 American National Election Study (ANES), and the 2004 Miami Exit Poll. Our results support the Differential Contact Thesis: even controlling for the initial likelihood to be contacted by the parties, racial and ethnic minorities were less likely to be contacted using the most effective techniques. To some extent, non-partisan contact seems to compensate for the inattention of the major parties toward minority voters, but this contact is less likely to mobilize voters than contact from the parties.     

Dictatorship of the Professoriat?

The following interview is with a retired eastern German professor whose career constitutes a case history in the comparative politics of “academic unfreedom”. Professor Erhard Naake was the only Ph.D. student in the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to write his dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche, whose work was considered “anti-socialist” throughout the history of the GDR regime. Because Herr Naake had the temerity to select Nietzsche as his thesis topic – a philosopher whose work was banned from GDR bookstores and never taught in GDR schools or even universities – he never received an appointment as a professor in a GDR university. Ironically, however, even after the collapse of the GDR in 1989–1990, Herr Naake was penalized by the new powers-that-be in reunited Germany. He once again suffered a violation of his academic freedom when the university evaluation boards, which were composed of western German scholars, refused to let him keep his recently acquired position as a professor and instead summarily fired him, thus leading to his enforced retirement. As we shall see, the dramatic life story of Herr Naake reflects not only complicated issues of academic freedom and communist versus capitalist political values, but also the rich and complex history of eastern Germany both under the Nazis and GDR Communists and within reunited Germany since 1990.

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Vorzugstemperatur und Vorzugsluftfeuchtigkeit der beiden Schabenarten Periplaneta Americana und Blaberus trapezoideus (Insecta: Blattaria)

Zusammenfassung Von adulten M?nnchen der beiden SchabenartenPeriplaneta americana undBlaberus trapezoideus wurden gleichzeitig Vorzugstemperatur und Vorzugsluftfeuchtigkeit ermittelt. Für beide Arten konnten in ihren Vorzugstemperaturen gewisse Akklimatisationserscheinungen festgestellt werden. BeiP. americana steigt die Vorzugstemperatur von 26°–29° nach einem einmonatigen Aufenthalt bei 20° auf etwa 29°–30° nach einerer Exposition bei 35° an.B. trapezoideus hat eine um etwa 3° niedrigere Vorzugstemperatur. Nach einem Aufenthalt bei 20° betr?gt sie etwa 23°–26°. Sie steigt auf etwa 26° nach einer Exposition bei 32° an.P. americana bevorzugt stets ein trockenes Milieu (geboten wurden 18% r.L.),B. trapezoideus such h?here Luftfeuchtigkeit auf (45%–93% r.L.) und meidet trockenes Milieu. Ein Gewichtsverlust von 15%–18% veranla?tP. americana eine um 1°–3° niedrigere Vorzugstemperatur, aber vor allem eine sehr hohe Luftfeuchte aufzusuchen. Ein Gewichtsverlust von 20%–25% des K?rpergewichtes hat keinen Einflu? auf die Vorzugstemperatur vonB. trapezoideus; jedoch halten sich die Tiere nur ebenfalls l?nger in sehr hoher Luftfeuchte auf.

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Summary The combined temperature and humidity preferences were investigated in adult males ofPeriplaneta americana andBlaberus trapezoideus. Both species show an acclimatization effect. After spending one acclimatization at 20°B. trapezoideus preferred 23°–26°, after spending one month at 32° the preference was about 26°.P. americana prefers the lowest available humidity (18%).B. trapezoideus avoids dry air and is equally distributed in the steps provided of 45%–93% r.h. After desiccation to 15%–18% of the total body weight,P. americana prefers a temperature 1°–3° lower than that before desiccation, but in this case most of all it prefers a very high humidity. Desiccation has no influence on the temperature preference ofB. trapezoideus, but the animal spends more time in very high humidities.

     

Public Opinion and Collective Obligations

This article attempts to identify the general principles that underlie public reasoning about collective obligations and that help explain when political parties can create new obligations or defend existing ones. I use these principles to President Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt to create government health-care plan and attempts by President Bush to privatize Social Security. The success of a party in selling – or defeating – an obligation depends upon what people believe about the competence and capacity of government and the value of autonomy – choices made by each citizen; whether people perceive the obligation as providing floors or establishing ceilings by limiting choice or otherwise restricting opportunities for the better-off; and whether the program is more like insurance or more like welfare. A party’s ability to maintain credibility with voters also depends upon whether party leaders can suppress issues that threaten intra-party elite pacts. When attempts to suppress “taboo” issues like “stem cells” or “black crime” fail, the party loses credibility with its voters and attempts to defend or sell obligations fail.

Social Reconstruction as a Local Process

¹When it comes to post-armed conflict interventions aimed atrestructuring a shattered society, policy makers have largelytreated countries as an undifferentiated whole, ignoring localdynamics that reinforce or transform the power relations thatare often most relevant to peoples’ lives. Using the exampleof Guatemala, the authors argue that local-level, bottom-upmechanisms can reflect a country's diverse makeup and experienceof conflict, and provide crucial precursors or extensions forwider-scale national and international projects. Local-levelinitiatives also can involve more community members, promoteagency and perhaps be less prone to large-scale patronage andcorruption. In promoting truth-telling initiatives and confrontingthe past, memorializing the departed and burying the dead, andresolving ongoing or recent community conflicts, the authorshave found that local-level programs have distinct advantages.The article considers local ‘houses of memory,’community-sponsored psycho-social interventions and exhumations;and conflict resolution based on Mayan methods. It concludesthat such efforts should be more systematically identified andsupported in post-armed conflict settings. In transitional justice,as elsewhere, the authors find, all politics is local.     

The Time That Was Broken, the Home That Was Razed: Deconstructing Slavenka Drakulic's Storytelling About Yugoslav War Crimes

¹In this article, I analyze the conceptualization of transitionaljustice underwriting Slavenka Drakuli's book, They Would NeverHurt a Fly, on the trials at the International Criminal Tribunalfor the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. I adopt a criticaland deconstructive strategy of interpretation that reveals Drakuli'sidea of ‘justice for the Balkans’ as not only internallyincoherent and fractured but also politically problematic. Iintroduce two concepts as central to Drakuli's storytellingabout transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia: (i) theidea of a ‘broken time’ and (ii) the idea of a ‘razedhome.’ I conclude that Drakuli's narratives of justiceare aimed at repairing broken time and rebuilding the razedhome in a way that reveals the author's redemptive, rather thanpolitical, thinking about transitional justice.     

Serbia’s Sandžak Under Milošević: Identity, Nationalism and Survival

Sandžak has the largest Muslim Slav (Bosniak) community in the Balkans outside Bosnia–Herzegovina. In 1990, Sandžak Bosniaks organized a branch of the Party of Democratic Action (Alija Izetbegović’s party) and began to agitate for regional autonomy. During the 1990s under Slobodan Milošević’s regime, local Bosniaks became the victims of state terror that saw widespread official discrimination and the ethnic cleansing of entire villages. In spite of having a high birth rate, the Bosniak population of Sandžak declined by 7.88% in the years 1991–2002 entirely because of the Milošević regime’s policies. Since the overthrow of Milošević, however, the Belgrade government has begun investing in the region’s infrastructure and economy. As a result, the situation for Bosniaks of Sandžak has improved since 2001. This article relies on more than 500 hours of oral interviews conducted by the author throughout Sandžak.

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Consultants, depoliticization and arena-shifting in the policy process: privatizing water in Berlin

This paper examines the effects of the growing presence of management consultants in policy processes. In particular, it addresses the key concern that consultants employed by governments often operate in new institutional arrangements not subject to the formal rules of political systems. Their activities, often secretive, are seen to undermine the democratic legitimacy of political decision-making. Despite the significance of these concerns there is still a lack of conceptual and empirical research on these topics. Addressing this gap, the paper first seeks to begin a more conceptual discussion about the role of consultants and “governance”. Turning to the literature on depoliticization in public policy, and following Flinders and Buller (Br Polit 1(3):293–318, 2006), it is argued that the hiring of consultants should be seen not as a move from political to apparently neutral, expert forms of policy-making, but as a shift in the arena of political decision-making. Such shifts can contribute to the emergence of what Hajer (Policy Sci 36(2):175–195, 2003a) calls the “institutional voids” of governance: the emergence of ad hoc political spaces in which the rules and outcomes of policy-making are unclear. It is argued that these ad hoc spaces may work to undermine the traditional institutions of political systems without providing an alternative form of democratic legitimacy. The paper examines these issues with reference to a case study of consultants working for the Berlin government on the privatization of the Berlin Water Company in 1999. It concludes by reflecting on the usefulness of the arena-shifting notion and outlining areas for future research.     

As Dayton Undergoes Proposals for Reform, the Status of Freedom of Movement, Refugee Returns, and War Crimes in Bosnia And Herzegovina

The Dayton General Framework Agreement for Peace of late 1995 brought a ceasefire and an end to the killings in Bosnia. More than 11 years after its signing, some of Dayton’s outlined aims for Bosnia remain unfulfilled or realized with mixed results. Late in 2005, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Dayton, leading world political figures raved about the successes of Dayton, but the immediate calls for the reform of Constitution included in the Dayton agreement, which followed the praise, are perhaps a better indicator of the Agreement’s shortfalls in transitioning the Bosnian society from war to peace and subsequently creating a functioning state since its signing. The outlined aims of Dayton were undoubtedly ambitious. This article will examine the successes and failures of Dayton, within the framework of its own aims and jurisdiction – which themselves, in the process, evolved and changed – to protect human rights with respect to the freedom of movement, the return of refugees, and the war crime indictments.

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Hans Jonas: A Study in Biology and Ethics

Hans Jonas was a philosopher who looked nihilism in the eye and courageously stood his ground. He did so by volunteering to serve against the Nazis in World War II, by discovering the links to nihilism in his thought of his teacher Martin Heidegger and by developing a novel philosophy of nature that took its lessons from both Aristotle and Darwin. Jonas’s philosophy of organic nature – his rehabilitation of the soul as a relevant notion for biology – provided prescient insights for the still developing fields of bioethics and environmental ethics.