Explaining Strategic Violence after Wars

This article aims to explain why strategic violence against targeted groups emerges after some civil wars but not others. It argues that when one side has captured the coercive apparatus of the state, and the potentially hostile losing side is less vulnerable to predation, the leaders of the victorious group can reward their domestic constituents and conduct in-group policing to prevent opportunistic violence. But when an armed group fails to achieve state capture and the losing side remains in a vulnerable position relative to its former enemies, neither side can credibly guarantee their domestic allies a share of the resources of the state or conduct effective in-group policing of potential extremists. Using Kosovo and East Timor as case studies, this article shows that in these cases, strategic violence is less a function of a concerted attempt to spoil a settlement than of the internal bargaining of new splinter groups.     

The Transformation of Israel's Extreme Right

The extreme right in Israel was traditionally defined by its hawkish views on the occupied territories and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The decline of this political camp in the 1999 national elections brought many to the conclusion that the Israeli extreme right had died. The main argument of this article is that the king is dead - long live the king. Despite the popular belief that the extreme right in Israel is on the decline, the second wave of right-wing extremism is already here in a stronger and more prevalent form. By accepting a broader definition of the extreme right, it can be concluded that twenty percent of Israeli parliament members represent ideas similar to those of the European extreme right, especially antidemocracy and xenophobia.     

以军如何搞『定点清除』

今年3月22日,巴勒斯坦伊斯兰抵抗运动(哈马斯)的创使人和精神领袖亚辛被以军"定点清除",4月17日晚,新继任的哈马斯领导人兰提西再度被以军"定点清除".另据以色列媒体报道,以色列政府将继续加大对哈马斯的"定点清除",包括阿拉法特在内的"对以构成严重威胁"的重要人物都将是以军的下一个目标.     

起点还是终点?--以色列单边行动计划透析

2005年8月15日,备受各方关注的以色列单边行动计划正式实施,以色列单方面、全面撤出了加沙地带全部21个和约旦河西岸4个犹太人定居点.尽管此举遭到以定居点居民和国内右翼极端势力的强烈反对,但在以色列总理沙龙的强力推动和巴勒斯坦当局的密切配合下,单边行动计划虽遇抵抗但进展顺利,原计划3周完成的撤离工作仅仅用了9天就大功告成.当初曾是定居点"缔造者"和"急先锋"的沙龙为什么会成为定居点的"摧毁者"?以色列今后还会不会有类似大规模的撤离行动?和平的阳光是否即将普照中东?     

Explaining chronic inflation in Indonesia

This paper describes and analyses Indonesia's frustrating experience with chronic inflation, and demonstrates that the cause of continuing moderately high inflation is excessive growth of base money. It examines the central bank's current target growth rates for narrow and broad money and bank lending, and argues instead in favour of a single target rate for base money as the key to bringing inflation under control.     

Pushing the frontiers of state audit: political auditing by Israel's state comptroller

Israel's State Comptroller has audited the political behaviors of elected officials and private citizens, in what are departures from its own traditions and those of other state auditors. Political auditing seems likely to appear among other auditors, sooner or later. Auditing is likely to attract more attention from political scientists, and the politics of auditing is likely to become an increasing topic of inquiry, as politics becomes more prominent on the auditor's agenda. The criticism directed at Israel's State Comptroller can be read to suggest the problems inherent in this expansion of audit activity.     

State lotteries: Explaining their popularity

This article provides a detailed explanation for the adoption of state lotteries as revenue measures. It focuses on Texas for examples. Relying on a previously published set of evaluative criteria for revenue sources, the authors explain why, despite generally negative treatment of state lotteries by revenue experts, lotteries are favored by legislatures and publics in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia. As revenue matters rather than general policy matters, lotteries are politically expedient and have sufficiently large yields to overshadow shortcomings noted by experts and critics: regressivity, high administrative costs, instability, lower than anticipated yields, and potential negative social consequences. This look at policy-maker and public evaluation of state lotteries explains their widespread utilitization.     

Explaining Ethnic Autonomy Regimes in Latin America

Through a systematic examination of nine cases, the author identifies factors that enabled indigenous movements in five Latin American countries to secure formal recognition of politico-territorial autonomy regimes. All nine cases occurred within the framework of a larger regime bargain—either (1) peace talks intended to end armed struggle when the regime faced a serious challenge to maintain political order or territorial control, or (2) a severe crisis of legitimacy and governability that forced political elites to renegotiate fundamental regime structures via the process of constitutional reform. In the five successful cases, changes in the political opportunity structure occurred that favored indigenous autonomy claimants. These changes were the opening of access to decision-making spheres and the emergence of an influential ally. Donna Lee Van Cott is assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is author ofThe Friendly Liquidation of the Past: The Politics of Diversity in Latin America and editor ofIndigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America.     

Explaining Less Accountability: the Growth of Local Quangos

There has been substantial growth in the number of non-elected public bodies – or quangos – operating at the local level. This development presents a marked change from the model of elected local authorities as the main focus for the governance and delivery of local public services. Four interpretations of this change are examined: agency-type, ideological control, managerial restructuring and regulationist explanations. Agency-type explanations recognize a plurality of factors, but lack theoretical or predictive rigour. Ideological and managerial explanations have a stronger theoretical basis but fail to recognize the wider structural context. Regulationist explanations offer, but also suffer from the problems of, structuralist analysis. An integrating framework is developed. Three phases in the development of local quangos are presented as a process by which government has resolved tensions in the British state. A consequence, however, has been to raise questions about the state's longer term legitimacy.