Introduction: the politics of public justification

ABSTRACT

Introducing the special issue, this introduction sketches a broad frame for studying public justification. Addressing the relevance of studying this phenomenon, we contend that justificatory processes are very much at the core today’s politics. Defining the concept inclusively, we highlight the relevance of communicative agency and, at the same time, the salience of communicative contexts that enable this agency. Casting our net widely, we show how public justification is related to other, more thoroughly studied concepts, such as legitimacy, authority and power. Encouraging students of public justification to add to our understanding of justificatory processes, we highlight multiple fruitful methodological avenues for studying the concept.     

Introduction to the special section: minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe

Territorial arrangements for managing inter-ethnic relations within states are far from consensual. Although self-governance for minorities is commonly advocated, international documents are ambiguously formulated. Conflicting pairs of principles, territoriality vs. personality, and self-determination vs. territorial integrity, along with diverging state interests account for this gap. Together, the articles in this special section address the territoriality principle and its hardly operative practice on the ground, with particular attention to European cases. An additional theme reveals itself in the articles: the ambiguity of minority recognition politics. This introductory article briefly presents these two common themes, followed by an outline of three recent proposals discussed especially in Eastern Europe that seek to bypass the controversial territorial autonomy model: cultural rights in municipalities with a “substantial” proportion of minority members; the cultural autonomy model; and European regionalism and multi-level governance.     

Rewriting and remembering Romanian communism: some controversial issues

This article examines the dynamic relationship between the two major dimensions of memory and justice in the context of post-communist countries: truth-telling and retroactive justice. This interdependent and uneasy relationship is illustrated by recent attempts at constructing a new historical narrative of the communist past in Romania in the wake of the de-secretization of the files of both the Communist Party and the communist secret police (Securitate). A systematic analysis of the activity of institutions that have been directly involved in research and public education about the recent past – the National Archives, the National Council for the Study of Securitate's Archives, and the Institute for the Investigation of Crimes of Communism – is undertaken. The work of these three institutional actors shows a direct relationship between truth-telling in its various forms (access to archives, opening the files and exhumations) and any subsequent retroactive justice and restitution. The main argument of the paper is that while deep-seated dichotomies between former communist and anti-communists in addressing the past still persist, a more nuanced way of seeing the regime that explores the ambiguous line that divides outright repression from cooptation is emerging.     

Romanian views on Bessarabia and Bukovina: A Ukrainian perspective

Nicholas Dima, Bessarabia and Bukovina: The Soviet‐Romanian Territorial Dispute. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1982. v, 173 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. Maria Manoliu‐Manea, ed., The Tragic Plight of a Border Area: Bessarabia and Bucovina. American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hum‐boldt State University Press, 1983. xii, 280 pp.     

Recuperative memory in Romanian post-Communist society

This paper explores the idea of “recuperative memory” with respect to the process of coming to terms with the past after the fall of the Romanian Communist regime in 1989. Its method is to examine the mechanisms used by recuperative memory in order to re-appropriate the past and emphasize the inherently mediated and multifaceted nature of this process. Using various examples from oral testimonies, autobiographical writings, literary works, and cinema, the paper argues that the role of recuperative memory is not only to facilitate the process of coming to terms with the past, but also to offer the material necessary to sustain a viable politics of memory. This entails providing a platform for the intergenerational transmission of memory and knowledge for those who did not live under the Communist regime, filling in this way the intergenerational gap, despite the lack of political class engagement.     

以色列政坛重新洗牌

2005年注定会成为以色列历史上乃至中东和平进程中的关键一年.在单边行动计划于8月在争议声中如期实施,结束了以色列对加沙38年的军事占领后,岁末的以色列政坛风云乍起,乱象丛生."少壮派"佩雷茨一举击败德高望重的政坛元老佩雷斯,出任工党新主席,随即率工党退出沙龙联合政府,引发连环政治"地震".     

The politics of hunger: Review article

Food Politics: the regional conflict. David Balaam & Michael J Carey, London: Croom Helm. 1981. 246pp. £16.95.

World Hunger: a guide to the economic and political dimensions. Nicole Ball, Oxford: Clio Press. 1981. 386pp. £27.95.

The Political Economy of Food Aid. John Cathie, Aldershot, England: Gower. 1982. 190pp. £14.50.

Food Security for Developing Countries. Edited by Alberto Valdes, Epping, England: Bowker. 1981. 351pp. £16.25.

Future Dimensions of World Food and Population. Edited by Richard G Woods, Epping, England: Bowker. 1981. 413pp. £16.25.     

Angola: The politics of unsustainable development

Armed conflict facilitates corruption and Angola presents a dramatic case study of this process. This article explores why the political context represents the key impediment to sustainable development. Solve the political problems and the gates are open for the Angolan people to reap the benefits of an abundant natural resource base with a low population density. The country has been trying to undergo three transitions simultaneously, that from war to peace, from single-party rule to multiparty democracy and from a commandbased to a free-market economy. The article explores these processes and their effects on changing patterns of corruption.     

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.     

巩固中罗传统友谊 谱写友好合作新篇章——在罗马尼亚议会的演讲

尊敬的杰瓦讷议长先生,各位议员,女士们,先生们,朋友们：应贵国政府邀请,我和我的同事们很高兴在这生机盎然的阳春时节对罗马尼亚进行正式友好访问。一踏上贵国美丽的国土,罗马尼亚人民对中国人民的友好情谊,就如和煦春风,扑面而来,使我们倍感温暖,格外亲切。     

Patterns of Romanian and Bulgarian Migration to Spain

The main purpose of this article is to establish to what extent migration from Bulgaria and Romania to Spain first, has a temporary and circulatory or a long-term and permanent nature, and secondly, responds to family or individual strategies. Several indicators are analysed: demographic composition; family reunification processes; migratory strategies within the family framework; the age of immigrants' children; and the frequency of movements between the destination and origin. The article demonstrates that many immigrants do not follow family reunification strategies but rather adopt individual strategies and that long term migration is the predominant pattern.