Nation‐building or ethnic fragmentation? Frontier settlement and collective identities in Israel

The paper analyses the evolution of collective identities from a critical geographical perspective, and argues that certain territorial practices associated with nation‐building and state‐building projects may actually sow the seeds of social and ethnic fragmentation. The analysis focuses on the impact of ‘internal frontier’ settlement in settler societies and highlights the key role of space, place and social control policies in the formation of ethnic and social identities. These identities are shown to be shaped, reshaped and reproduced during the processes of settlement, migration, segregation and inter‐group territorial conflict. Within that theoretical framework, the paper explores the case of Israel, and the impact of the settlement and spatial planning in the Galilee region on the formation of regional collective identities. The analysis shows that the process of settling the frontiers has given rise to ethnic, social and institutional fragmentation, particularly between Palestinian‐Arabs, Mizrahi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews. These divisions may— paradoxically—undermine the very nation‐building and state‐building projects that had instigated the settlement of the internal frontier.     

Symbolic Legitimacy of Social Ordering and Conflict Settlement Practices: The Role of Collective Identities in Local Politics of Tajikistan

ABSTRACT

Collective identities like Islamic, kinship and geographical affiliations commit people to norms and practices of social ordering and influence their everyday practices. This article discusses how collective identities commit people in southern Tajikistan to patriarchal and authoritarian ordering and conflict settlement in view of unequal and contested distribution of power. A commitment to such illiberal norms and practices legitimises an exploitation of marginalised people. It discredits and prevents their discontent, court deals or open resistance. Furthermore, patriarchal and authoritarian conflict management ostracises rivals and/or suppresses those who criticise a hierarchical distribution of resources, co-optation deals, and patron-client exchanges.     

The Israel and Palestine land settlement problem: An analytical history, 4000 B.C.E.–1948 C.E.

This paper traces the history of the modern conflict between Israel and Palestine from 4000 B.C.E. to 1948 C.E.. It shows how Jews and Arabs diverged from a common source to become arch-enemies during the British Mandate over Palestine. It outlines the impact of world war II, the holocaust, treason, and terrorism on the Palestinian problem, and explains why Britain relinquished the Mandate in 1947, leaving the United Nations to resolve the land settlement problem. The paper outlines the manipulation by the USSR and the USA of the United Nations General Assembly vote on Resolution 181, in November 1947. It demonstrates why this corrupted land settlement set the scene for almost 60 years of continuous war and terrorism in the Middle East.     

Institutional Change and Conflict Regulation: The Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) and the Mechanisms of Change in Northern Ireland

This article uses historical institutionalist theory to assess the impact of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 – often seen as the first step towards gradualist change in the role of the state in Northern Ireland. It uses new data to show how the elites who initiated the process conceived of it and to identify the mechanisms producing change. The study shows that the mechanisms of institutional change identified in comparative studies of industrial policy and welfare state development are also to be found in processes of intergovernmental ethnic conflict regulation. In turn, it highlights a mechanism of institutional change – ‘wedging’ – not discussed in the literature.     

Reforging the Union: Devolution and Constitutional Change in the United Kingdom

Devolution to Scotland and Wales represents a major constitutionalchange in the United Kingdom. It responds to changes in Britishpolitics and in Europe, which have necessitated a renegotiationof the union that underpins the United Kingdom. The Scottishproposals are more radical than those for Wales, while Englishregional government change has been postponed for the time being.Possible areas of difficulty in the new arrangements includefinance, relations with Westminster, partisan conflict, andScotland's position in Europe. Devolution is likely to continuefor some years before a stable settlement is reached.     

Federal Jurisprudence in the Public Sphere of the Early Cape Settlement, 1652-1708

This study investigates the tenability off. Wayne Baker's viewsof theological and political federalism and the origins thereofin the thought of Heinrich Bullinger within the jurisprudentialcontext of the early Cape settlement (1652–1708). Mostauthors commenting on the ideological roots of this Dutch settlementof the middle of the seventeenth century advanced the uncriticalnotion that Dutch Calvinism determined the nature of the communityat the Cape. A critical analysis shows that the Reformed approachof federalism, flowing from Henrich Bullinger's views of thecovenant, played a much more fundamental role in this earlyformative phase of typical Cape jurisprudence. This federaljurisprudence provided a vision of legality based on the lawof God and legitimacy involving the whole of society bound tothe precepts in the Decalogue. In the final analysis, the underpinningsof the rule of law applied at the Cape settlement confirm Baker'sconclusions about the fundamental impact Bullinger's federalviews had on the Reformed world of the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies.     

Two Walks: Palestine and the Peak District. A Conversation between Raja Shehadeh and Marina Lewycka, September 2008

In the summer of 2008 novelist Marina Lewycka and author and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh went on two walks: the first in Palestine near Ramallah near the Beit Eil Jewish settlement, the second on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, the site of the mass trespass in 1932 to reclaim the right to walk on the hills. This account of the conversation they recorded on the second walk includes observations by Marina on writing about Palestine and Israel and reflections by Raja about the effect of the Israeli occupation on the fragile Palestinian landscape. It also includes their discussions on writing, walking and the meaning it has to each of them, as well as political comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evoked by visiting these sites. They wonder whether a similar act of resistance would be possible in Palestine and what it would mean to the future of the conflict.     

‘Going institutional’ to overcome obstruction: Explaining the suppression of minority rights in Western European parliaments, 1945−2010

When and why do parliamentary majorities in Europe suppress parliamentary minority rights? This article argues that such reforms are driven by substantive policy conflict in interaction with existing minority rights. Government parties curb minority rights if they fear minority obstruction due to increased policy conflict and a minority-friendly institutional status quo. Empirical support is found for this claim using comparative data on all reforms in 13 Western European parliaments since 1945. A curbing of minority rights is significantly more likely under conditions of heightened policy conflict and these effects are stronger the more the institutional status quo favours opposition parties. Contrary to frequent claims of consensual rule changes from single-country studies in Europe, these findings demonstrate the importance of competitive strategies in explaining institutional reform in European parliaments. The conditional impact of the status quo provides interesting theoretical links to historical institutionalist arguments on path dependence.     

Contractualization,depoliticization and the limits of solidarity: noncitizens in contemporary Australia

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze a particular form of noncitizenship – arising from legal long-term temporary migration – that is increasingly significant to the contemporary Australian context and to understand some of its consequences. It argues that traditional pathways of permanent settlement and full citizenship are being disrupted by new temporary migration schemes that create ‘middling’ noncitizen subjects who experience ‘patchwork’ rights and statuses across complex and diverse migration pathways. Through a close analysis of policy narratives and discourses, as well as of the existing literature on the social conditions and emerging solidarities of these noncitizens, the paper shows the various ways that noncitizenship is depoliticized and citizenship contractualized in Australia. These entwined processes of depoliticization and contractualization have intimate effects on the lives of noncitizens, and also limit and constrain the emerging solidarities that seek to challenge their exclusion. The analysis has a number of implications for the ongoing study of contemporary transformations in citizenship in other ‘immigrant democracies’ globally.     

Examining Changes in Settlement Policies for Immigrants: The Israeli Case

Settlement policies for immigrants seek to provide services for the needs of the newcomers during their initial stay in their new country. These services can be differentiated by the degree of discretion clients have over the manner in which the services are provided, i.e., in the form of in-kind or cash benefits, and by the conditions linked to receipt of these services. In recent years, the Israeli government has implemented an unusually liberal and relatively generous settlement policy that provides virtually unconditional cash benefits to immigrants. An examination of the decision-making process surrounding the adoption of this unique policy indicates that it can be linked to the need to deal with the mass influx of Soviet Jews during the early 1990s, power struggles between the agencies charged with immigrant integration, and the dominant Zionist and free market values of the decision-makers. This study of the settlement policy adopted in Israel during the 1990s not only can contribute to a better understanding of the decision-making process involved in social policy formulation but, on a more practical level, can serve as a model of dealing with immigrants that may be of relevance to other welfare states.     

Russia's priorities in the Pacific

While Japan’s increased use of the WTO dispute settlement system since 1995 is now widely acknowledged, much less clear are the reasons and motivations behind the specific complaints filed by the Japanese government. An examination of Japan’s complaints between 1995 and 2002 reveals that they have been undertaken almost exclusively on behalf of two sectors, namely automobiles and especially steel. What accounts for the concentration of Japan’s complainant activity in these sectors and not others? In drawing a direct link from domestic politics to the heart of the WTO dispute settlement system, this essay stresses the importance of sectoral lobbying and pressures. It shows concretely how politically organized and institutionally privileged sectors such as Japanese steel have become a major driving force in Japan’s WTO strategy overall. These results are important for considering why there may be far more interaction between state, sectoral, and electoral interests than is normally suspected in the WTO dispute settlement processes.     

Convergence or divergence?: change in welfare effort in OECD countries 1960–1980

Abstract. This paper examines changes in welfare effort from 1960 to 1980 and two intervening periods. Analysis of data on 17 OECD countries indicates that there is increasing divergence in welfare effort, as reflected in expenditure and policy orientation, although this statement masks important nuances relating to measures of welfare effort and time periods. The findings illustrate the importance of considering the elements of welfare effort. The patterns of variation in social transfer and government civil consumption expenditure differ as do the explanations of these patterns particularly those relating to the impact of working class mobilisation variables. These variables are positively and relatively strongly associated with change in consumption expenditure in both the 1960–73 and 1973–80 periods but only weakly associated with change in social transfer expenditure. This has implications for findings relating to the widely used ILO measure of welfare effort. Since it is skewed towards social transfer payments and includes only a small part of consumption expenditure, the impact of working class mobilization variables is not evident. Finally, the standardization of change in welfare effort for average annual change in real GDP results in interesting insights relating to the impact of independent variables on 'real' as opposed to nominal change in welfare effort.     

Forging a Resilient Social Contract in South Africa: States and Societies Sustaining Peace in the Post-Apartheid Era

ABSTRACT

Since the advent of democracy in the 1990s, the South African political settlement has ushered into policy a progressive framework for the realization of socio-economic rights, enshrined by the Constitution. However, this political settlement has failed to translate into an economic and social settlement that results in just livelihood strategies and equitable service delivery that addresses historical grievances. Inadequate implementation of socio-economic policies designed to address injustice has contributed to weakening vertical cohesion between state and society. Analysing these two core conflict issues, access to service delivery and livelihood strategies, this article argues that the interaction of the political settlement and the ability of institutions to deliver effectively has negatively affected state-society relations and the legitimacy of the reconciliation agenda meant to support inter-group cohesion.     

Value Conflict and Policy Change

The analysis of policy change has produced a number of contrasting theoretical approaches, each offering a lens through which to view policy phenomena. This article suggests that the existing menu of approaches for understanding change can be usefully complemented by an understanding of the role played by value conflict. Using institutionalist analysis, I argue that the need to make value‐choices in a nondisruptive way shapes large areas of government activity, particularly in Westminster systems, and explains many observed patterns of stability and change. Building on work by Thacher and Rein, I describe and characterize six types of response to value conflict, giving examples of the role and implications of each. It is not claimed that all policy change can be understood in this way—simply that some types of change reflect the value‐based nature of public policy itself, and the fact that political and bureaucratic systems must evolve mechanisms for dealing simultaneously with thousands of competing and conflicting policy values.     

Trading Refugees: The Governance of Refugee Settlement in a Decentralized Welfare State

In a decentralized welfare state, central and local governments need each other to settle refugees. Using the case of Norway, the article studies how these interdependencies have been governed over time, including through the 2015–2016 refugee crisis. Norway's refugee settlement programme is a conscious hybrid of market and network governance and it has remained essentially stable for more than 20 years, despite several changes in government, large fluctuations in the number of refugees, and long periods of poor performance vis-à-vis settlement targets. This surprising programme stability is explained by a combination of extraordinary political adherence to the democratic value of local government autonomy, the cupidity of local governments, and abundant state economic resources during the period under study.     

Group Segregation and Urban Violence

How does segregation shape intergroup violence in contested urban spaces? Should nominal rivals be kept separate or instead more closely integrated? We develop an empirically grounded agent‐based model to understand the sources and patterns of violence in urban areas, employing Jerusalem as a demonstration case and seeding our model with microlevel, geocoded data on settlement patterns. An optimal set of parameters is selected to best fit the observed spatial distribution of violence in the city, with the calibrated model used to assess how different levels of segregation, reflecting various proposed “virtual futures” for Jerusalem, would shape violence. Our results suggest that besides spatial proximity, social distance is key to explaining conflict over urban areas: arrangements conducive to reducing the extent of intergroup interactions—including localized segregation, limits on mobility and migration, partition, and differentiation of political authority—can be expected to dampen violence, although their effect depends decisively on social distance.     

Understanding policy change through bricolage: The case of Chile's renewable energy policy

Chile is a country where path dependency made energy policy change extremely difficult by international standards. However, the country has recently become a renewable energy poster child thanks to a gradual process of policy change. How was this possible? This article contributes to discussions about policy change driven by ideas and to explaining the puzzling case of Chilean energy policy change. It does so by discussing the mechanism of bricolage—the recombination of old and new ideas by policy entrepreneurs—and its capacity to produce policy change in contexts of high path dependency. The article develops the political manifestations and consequences of bricolage and problematizes how actors continue to contest and change ideas' meaning after they have been institutionalized, a key question when analyzing processes of bricolage. The analysis is based on an array of data sources including interviews with key actors, newspaper notes, and legislative proceedings.     

Gendering the Holy Cross School Dispute: Women and Nationalism in Northern Ireland

This article explores the Holy Cross school dispute in Northern Ireland from a feminist perspective. This ethnic quarrel produced a situation whereby women and young schoolgirls became the focal point of a sectarian protest from September 2001 to early 2002. Throughout the conflict, issues of gender were sidelined from the analysis of the dispute. The article attempts to remedy this omission by moving the category of gender to the forefront of the analysis. It examines the relationship between nationalist discourses of gender identity and representations of the nationalist women's agency during the dispute. While exposing these dimensions of the conflict, the article also considers the impact of women's ethno-nationalist agency on their role and positioning within nationalist cultures. It concludes that the Holy Cross conflict exposes the potentially disruptive aspects of women's ethno-nationalist agency and highlights the political significance of that agency for nationalist cultures pursuing ideals of gender equality.     

Reconstructing Heritage in the Aftermath of Civil War: Re-Visioning the Nation and the Implications of International Involvement

Abstract

Culture is an indispensable asset in post-conflict recovery processes; however, it can also be used as a means of continuing violence on a symbolic and ideological level, particularly in the case of civil wars. In a reconstruction paradigm this violence often takes the form of struggles over history, memory, heritage, and identity. Despite the context-specific differences of conflicts, their aftermaths do retain some common elements—such as an emphasis on re-envisioning history and re-defining national identity. This article examines three issues: the intentionality guiding choices about what to rebuild, the symbolic landscape that emerges as a result, and the ethical issues that arise from third party intervention in the reconstruction of cultural heritage. The rhetoric that surrounds reconstruction projects differs widely from the reality on the ground and I will argue that it is important to understand this in order to assess the impact that reconstruction can have on attempts at reconciliation, identity and state-building. This article also examines some of the ethical issues involved in the post-conflict reconstruction of cultural heritage including the role of international values associated to ‘heritage of mankind’ and their possible conflict with local valuations of cultural heritage. This area of study is becoming increasingly urgent. International organizations have escalated their involvement in post-conflict reconstruction work and in these interventions they impress their particular code of values on fragile societies often without a full appreciation of the possible long-term consequences of their actions.     

Penal Populism and the Public Thermostat: Crime,Public Punitiveness,and Public Policy

This article makes the case that feedback processes in democratic politics—between crime rates, public opinion, and public policy—can account for the growth of penal populism in Britain. It argues that the public recognize and respond to rising (and falling) levels of crime, and that in turn public support for being tough on crime is translated into patterns of imprisonment. This contributes to debates over the crime–opinion–policy connection, unpacking the dynamic processes by which these relationships unfold at the aggregate level. This uses the most extensive data set ever assembled on aggregate opinion on crime in Britain to construct a new over‐time measure of punitive attitudes. The analysis first tests the thermostatic responsiveness of punitive attitudes to changes in recorded crime rates as well as self‐reported victimization, and then examines the degree to which changes in mass opinion impact on criminal justice policy.