From AKP’s ‘Conservative Democracy’ to ‘Advanced Democracy’: Shifts and Challenges in the Debate on ‘Europe’

Abstract

Following the AKP’s victory in the 2002 general elections, ‘conservative democracy’ has emerged as a trademark in Turkish politics, focusing on cosmopolitanism and European integration. In the late 2000s, the party’s favourite notion was ‘advanced democracy’, this time underlining Turkey’s leadership claim in the region and displaying a more critical approach to ‘Europe’. In this paper, I aim to show how different narratives on ‘Europe’ emerged within the context of these empty signifiers. The paper claims that the difference in the two narratives on ‘Europe’ in two different periods does not point to a complete and fully fledged de-Europeanisation trend.     

‘Social Investment’ or Back to ‘Familism’: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Family and Care Policies in Italy and Spain

Family policies have traditionally been weak in Southern Europe. In the last two decades, however, and following a ‘catching up’ course, Spain has created new family programmes and expanded existing ones. Meanwhile, the picture for Italy during the years preceding the crisis is more of a ‘frozen landscape’. However, the diverging paths of the two countries in terms of policy reform in the years preceding the crisis do not place them in substantially different positions. The economic crisis and the austerity measures that followed have aggravated the weaknesses of family and care policies in both countries.     

From the Bare and Arid Hills to Anatolia,the Loveable and Beautiful: Kemalist Project of ‘National Modernity’ in Anatolian Countryside

This article discusses how the discourse of ‘Anatolia, the loveable and beautiful’ was developed after the retreat of the Ottomans from the Balkans and how Anatolia emerged as the construction site of the Kemalist project of ‘national modernity’ and ‘Anatolian enlightenment’. Based on a meticulous reading of the ethnographies, histories and monographs on Anatolian cities and regions published between 1923 and 1950 as well as the journals of the local branches of People's Houses, the article demonstrates how the regime attempted to establish its legitimacy by incorporating the local elements into the ‘grand national narrative’ and nationalizing the Anatolian countryside.     

The evolution of Japan's role in ‘Lusophone’ Africa: From inertia to action

This article explores Japan's relations with Lusophone Africa over the past 60 years. It asks what factors have propelled Japan's shift from a foreign policy based on inertia to a more proactive one. Arguably, colonialism and postcolonialism linked to the Cold War politics had a negative impact on Japan's relations with the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and Africa as a whole; this contrasts with Japan's process of ‘Africanisation’ after 1990, reflective of changing external and internal circumstances. The question arises as to whether Japan's relations with the specific PALOP states, and with the group as a whole, have been influenced by, or have had influence over, Japan's long-term approach to other African states. Lastly, what characterises Japan's approach to the PALOP? Findings show mutual gains beyond the simple exploitation of natural resources towards broad-based sustainable growth. Still, from the perspective of the poorest PALOP, development cooperation and trade benefits are unbalanced and insufficient.     

From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Iron Dome’: US support of Israel's Missile Defense systems

This article traces the process that bolstered Israel into becoming one of the world's leading high-tech top-tier defense producers in the world from Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative to the present multi-layer anti-missiles – the Arrow, David's Sling and Iron Dome. The article analyses the Israeli–American strategic partnership in the context of US/Middle Eastern policies from Reagan to Obama. This is a crucial element in the ‘Special Relationship’ between the United States and Israel.     

Amr Khaled: From Da‘wa to Political and Religious Leadership

Amr Khaled, a Muslim-Egyptian televangelist, illustrates the ways in which satellite television and the Internet provide a new form for challenging political and religious authority. This article examines the manner in which Khaled constructs this authority by examining his flagship programme, Sunaa' al-Hayah (‘Lifemakers’).     

From a ‘success’ story to a highly indebted poor country: Ghana and neoliberal reforms

Drawing on the experience of Ghana, which the World Bank itself proclaimed as an African success story in the early 1990s, this paper sheds important light on why neoliberal policies have had limited success in Africa and what strategies are likely to be necessary to foster growth and industrialisation in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. In 2001, a few short years after being proclaimed as an economic miracle, Ghana joined the growing ranks of highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) – an especially humbling development for this once proud nation. Why did Ghana's economy collapse after recovering so well? Ghana's experience highlights both the promise and limitation of neoliberal reforms.     

An ‘All of Commonwealth’ Journey: From Marlborough House to Malakal

In this article, the author, who played an instrumental role in the post-apartheid development of South Africa, argues that there is a clear need for some ‘All of Commonwealth’ initiatives for the reconstruction of South Sudan. In particular, he advocates the creation of an Eminent Persons Group along the lines of its 1985 South African predecessor, and notes that the strategy suggested may lead to Canadian re-engagement with the Commonwealth.     

From salary to resistance: mobility,employment, and violence in Dibra, 1792–1826

ABSTRACT

This article traces the military employment patterns of the highlanders of Dibra in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It addresses how the Albanian highlanders found different opportunities for military employment in a period largely associated with political instability. The Albanians as ‘mountain bandits’ have been regarded as the primary culprit of the violence that ravaged the Balkans. The same bandits, this article shows, constituted at the same time the irregular forces the Ottoman army came to rely on in the late eighteenth century. By demonstrating different prospects of employment with which the Albanian irregulars were preoccupied, it provides a broader perspective to observe the turmoil the Balkans underwent in a period of political instability. This article also deals with the intricate interplay between the Albanian irregulars and the Ottoman military administration. It reinserts the Albanian bandits-cum-irregulars into the background of the military reforms. Showing how different prospects for military employment that ranged from freelance plunder to service either for the imperial army or the retinue of the rogue Albanian pashas came to clash with the discourse of military reforms, this article also traces the increasing tension between the Albanian irregulars and the modernising Ottoman army.     

Transformations of a Memory of Tyranny in Syria: From Jamal Pasha to ‘Id al-Shuhada’, 1914–2000

Islam. By L. I. Klimovich, Moscow, 1965.

Arabic Classical Literature. By I. M. Fil'shtinskiy, Moscow, 1965.     

‘We’, ‘they’ and the ‘human’ in the middle: foreign interventions for ‘humanitarian reasons’ during the nineteenth century in Turkish historiography

This paper explores the way in which historiography produced in Turkey (or by Turkish scholars abroad) approaches foreign military/diplomatic interventions in the Ottoman Empire during the long nineteenth century. It focuses on three case studies where ‘humanitarian reasons’ formed the discursive basis/justification of such interventions. The author argues that when the distinction between victims and perpetrators, civilians and combatants, emerges as an interpretive dilemma in the debates of the historical period examined, similar interpretive and normative challenges are inherited by the historiographical accounts of it. The paper distinguishes two contrasting ways in which Turkish historiographical scholarship responds to such a dilemma. The first remains confined by the way Ottomans themselves viewed the world around them and uncritically reproduces rigid categories of selfhood and otherhood between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The second trajectory offers tools for understanding the conflicts behind the construction of the category of the human worth of international protection, and disentangles itself from the normative bind described above.     

Learning to laugh: satire and political thought in the Latvian ‘National Age’

ABSTRACT

Satiric publications are often recognized as an important part of the political communication of the nineteenth century. Their role, however, in the national ‘awakenings’ in central eastern Europe has been rarely addressed. This paper argues that satirical publications provide useful material for the research of the political ideology of early Latvian nationalism. The development of the ‘ethnic Other’ in the figure of the Bizmanis or ‘Plaitman,’ the invention of the ‘dumb minority,’ the Malenians, as well as the representation of imperial and provincial forces in animal fables illustrate the development of the political thinking of the emerging national movement.     

‘Gender,Neoliberalism, and the Venezuelan Migrant Crisis’: Female Migrants' Informal Labour and Access to Services in Urban Colombia

Neoliberalism, informality, and migration are all inextricably linked and the Venezuelan migration crisis has certain implications for women. While extensive post-neoliberal spending programmes under Chávez served to reverse the feminisation of poverty, millions of Venezuelans have migrated in recent years due to a severe economic crisis. Oral history testimonies highlight how female Venezuelan migrants in neoliberal Colombia often have no choice but to engage in precarious informal earning strategies and also experience reduced access to public services, which can substantially increase their domestic labour and outgoings. In many ways they are better off in Venezuela, thus highlighting how neoliberalism exacerbates gender poverty in both Latin America and the Global South.     

‘Beggars’ and ‘Vagrants’ in Ottoman State Policy and Public Discourse, 1876–1914

This study examines the changes in public discourse and state policy towards beggars and vagrants during the reign of Abdülhamid II (1876–1908) and the early years of the Second Constitutional Period (1908–1914). During the Hamidian period, although the educated public's concern and anxiety towards the idle poor increased, government action towards the urban poor remained limited. The constitutional regime of the post-1908 period provided the police with new legislative tools to control beggars and vagrants and the government launched a campaign against the urban idle poor. Despite these steps, however, the government fell short in its attempt at regulating the idle poor.     

The Rise and Fall of Turcophilism in Nineteenth-Century British Discourses: Visions of the Turk, ‘Young’ and ‘Old’

This article examines the evolving British perceptions of the Ottoman Empire from the onset of the Tanzimat to Abdülhamid II. The article aims to attest the emergence of a positive image of the ‘reforming Turk’ and the erosion of this positive assessment following the disillusionment with the achievements of Tanzimat. The article discusses the Christian dimensions of the positive and negative attitudes towards the Ottomans and ‘moral racism’ inherent in both the positive and negative assessments. The article ends with concluding that this reference framework from which the British discourses on the Ottomans derived had eclipsed with the demise of the British nineteenth-century political elite and culture in tandem with the waning of the Ottoman political culture and elite.     

Modern weddings in Uzbekistan: ritual change from ‘above’ and from ‘below’

Under the new conditions of independence, wedding ceremonies in Uzbekistan have increasingly diversified along growing social and economic divides. Recent state measures to curb ritual expenditures follow the furrow of a long tradition of criticism against ritual prodigality which, however, falls short of its self-set target of enforcing more ‘rational’ rituals. Based on fieldwork conducted in the Ferghana Valley, this paper sheds a new light on the controversy around ‘excessive ritual expenditures’ by discussing tensions in local practices arising from changing livelihoods and consumption patterns, on the one hand, and, on the other, from an ambivalent state policy that aims at containing ritual expenditures and social polarization, while also promoting an ideal of modern wedding that undermines the very aim of the policy.     

Germans and ‘others’: Racism,xenophobia, or ‘legitimate conservatism'?

Drawing on data from various sources, the article assesses the extent of xenophobia and the potential support base for right‐wing extremism in the united Germany. The data shows that West Germany displayed a considerable level of xenophobia before unification, and that at present, Germans in east and west display strikingly similar patterns of hostility towards foreigners. In comparison to their European neighbours, however, the Germans are not markedly different. In addition to levels of education, and placement on a Left‐Right scale, the driving force behind xenophobic attitudes ‐ both in Germany and in other European Community states ‐ are economic and social fears and a perception of relative deprivation.