Property and constitutional order: Land tenure reform and the future of the African state

The debate over land law reform in Africa has been framed asa referendum on the market – that is, as a debate pittingadvocates of the growth-promoting individualization of propertyrights against those who call for protecting the livelihoodsand subsistence rights of small farmers. This article arguesthat the prospect of land law reform also raises a complex bundleof constitutional issues. In many African countries, debatesover land law reform are turning into referenda on the natureof citizenship, political authority, and the future of the liberalnation state itself. The article describes alternative landreform scenarios that are currently under debate, and identifiesthe constitutional implications of each. The practical salienceof the issues is illustrated through reference to land reformpolitics in Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, South Africa,and Tanzania.     

Ethos and Logos in Israeli Citizenship: Discourse Analysis of Civic Studies Textbooks

This study examines the notion of citizenship as a form of political identity in a multi-national and multi-ethnic state such as Israel. In an effort to understand the strategies by which citizenship of Palestinians and Jews in Israel is defined, this research analyses civic studies textbooks currently used in Israeli public schools. The study asks whether the notion of citizenship is drawn from universal or particularistic- ethnic principles; what the boundaries of the demos are, and how citizens' economic, social, political and civil rights are defined. It focuses on the analysis of the ethos of citizenship and the internal Logos that sustain it as a coherent discourse in civic studies textbooks. Theoretically, the study examines basic concepts of citizenship and nationhood in a multi-ethnic society such as Israel. It re-examines ethnic groups' right to self-determination against individual and collective minority rights based on universal principles. This case adds to the understanding of the complex relationship between the particularistic and the universal forms of political identity, nationalism and citizenship.     

Singapore General Election 2015 and the Role of Citizenship Education

Abstract

This article explores the role of education, in particular citizenship education, in shaping the Singapore electorate. An understanding of the history of citizenship education helps to shed light on the contemporary political culture in Singapore. The extent to which democratic citizenship education has been taught in schools since 1958 is explored. Singapore’s citizenship education has consistently stressed the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, patriotism, national identity and moral values—with the goal of nation-building and legitimising the People’s Action Party state. This reflective historical piece on Singapore’s educational history adds a relatively unexplored facet to the discussions on the general election 2015 results as well as Singapore’s subsequent political development. The results of the 2015 general election in Singapore, seen in this light, are not so surprising, as they reflect the success of the state’s citizenship education in shaping the current political culture.     

Citizenship controversies in Germany: The twin legacy of Völkisch nationalism and the Alleinvertretungsanspruch

For many Germans, citizenship is a problematic and emotive issue, as is demonstrated by the controversies generated around current attempts to modernise and ‘normalise’ German citizenship law. This article looks to German history to account for the failure of successive governments to effect such change. It asserts that two key historical developments have been decisive in stalling a ‘normal’ western European pattern of policy development in this field. First, the concept and law of citizenship in Germany were originally formulated in the context of nation‐state development based on cultural or ‘völkisch’ nationalism. Second, West German governments subordinated the development of citizenship policy to the aim of upholding the West German claim to be the sole legitimate representative of the Germans, thereby denying the legitimacy of the GDR. The unification of Germany in 1990 removed the specific constraints which had brought about the stalled citizenship policy. The article contrasts a Kulturnation (ethno‐cultural) stance on citizenship issues with a Verfassungsnation (civic‐territorial) understanding, and identifies contemporary partisan positions within this conceptual framework.     

Addressing Myanmar’s Citizenship Crisis

Among many problematic issues surfacing in reformist Myanmar is a citizenship crisis with four main dimensions. First, in a state with fragile civil liberties, skewed political rights and limited social rights, there is a broad curtailment of citizenship. Second, Rohingya Muslims living mainly in Rakhine State are denied citizenship, and other Muslims throughout the country are increasingly affected by this denial. Third, designated ethnic minorities clustered in peripheral areas face targeted restrictions of citizenship. Fourth, the dominant Bamar majority concentrated in the national heartland tends to arrogate or appropriate citizenship. The result is growing social tension that threatens to undermine the wider reform process. To examine this crisis, the article sets Myanmar in a comparative context. In particular, it considers how multicultural states in the developed world have sought to manage a political switch from racial or ethnic hierarchy to democratic citizenship. Drawing on global experience with multiculturalism and enabling civic integration, it advances a series of policy options focused on rights, duties and identity. It argues for domestic political leadership, backed by global political support, to address Myanmar’s citizenship crisis.     

Party-Sponsored Protest and the Movement Society: The CDU/CSU Mobilises Against Citizenship Law Reform

In 1999, the CDU/CSU single-handedly launched an extremely successful petition drive against the SPD-Green citizenship law reform (in particular against dual citizenship). This article argues that four developments converged to explain this tactical innovation. First, Germany's political culture had become a 'social movement society', with even conservatives accepting protest as a political means. Second, the issue of immigration pressurised the party to adopt a hard-line stance in order to co-opt the extreme right. Third, the Kohl government had left a legacy of resistance to citizenship liberalisation and of populist exploitation of anti-foreigner sentiment. Fourth, the petition drive reflected the CDU/CSU's new opposition status and its internal struggle over agenda and leadership. The article concludes with a look at the CDU/CSU's subsequent use of plebiscitory tactics and the implications for the future of protest politics.     

How do the Youth Perceive and Experience Turkish Citizenship?

Citizenship is generally perceived as a political practice that falls within the historical domain of the nation-state. At least, this is the claim of many nation-states themselves, which disavow the possibility of citizenship outside of their own structures. Rather than concentrate on the organization of citizenship, this article, instead, concentrates on the experience of individual citizens. It explores a wide-ranging sample of Turkish youth's perceptions and practices of citizenship, focusing on three dimensions: citizenship as legal status; citizenship as identity; and citizenship as civic virtue. It argues that individuals' perceptions and experiences of citizenship can be mapped out according to these three dimensions, and, additionally, political affiliation or commitment is the key to young people's preference for any one of these dimensions. Thus the legal status aspect of citizenship was emphasized by liberal and republican young people; nationalist, Islamist and Kurdish youth were concerned for its identity aspects; and the civic virtue aspect was stressed by republican and leftist respondents. However the article also demonstrates that similarly to the experiences of young people themselves, these three aspects of citizenship are not clearly demarcated theoretical domains but are both deeply interrelated and conflicted with each other. The reasons for this lie in the practice and understanding of citizenship facilitated and propagated by the Turkish state.     

Banking on Folk Art: Banamex‐Citigroup and Transnational Cultural Citizenship

This article offers two readings of The Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art, a travelling exhibition of the Fomento Cultural Banamex, AC's folk art collection that coincided with Citigroup's buyout of Banamex, Mexico's second largest bank. The first, a political economic critique, situates the exhibition within the neoliberal economic reform of the Mexican banking system and the designs of US‐based transnational banks on migrant remittances. The second, a material culture approach, focuses on the exhibitionary strategies employed to incentivise folk art consumption as a mode of cosmopolitan citizenship.     

The failure of immigration reform in Germany

After many years without substantial activity in immigration policy, the German Red–Green government which came to power in 1998 introduced an American-style Green Card and a new citizenship law. From these beginnings, the immigration reform campaign captured the public imagination, and for two years a broad spectrum of figures from German public life took part in a lively debate on the issue. A law was eventually adopted by parliament and promulgated in spring 2002, but – in the wake of a voting scandal in the Bundesrat – it was struck down by the Federal Constitutional Court weeks before its scheduled entry into force. This report recounts the story of the now defunct immigration law and seeks to shed valuable light on German politics by analysing what the key differences were that divided the main political parties.     

Why should Austria be different from Germany? the two recent nationality reforms in contrast

The article compares and evaluates the two recent reforms of nationality law in Austria and Germany. Before the changes both countries were very similar cases in terms of their nationality and immigration policy. Both relied on strict ‘jus sanguinis’, the principle of descent which is anchored in their nationality laws. One implication of jus sanguinis is that it constantly reproduces ‘new-born’ foreigners, as the only way for foreign residents to obtain national citizenship is via naturalisation. This includes the obligation to renounce any former nationality. In its recent amendment in 2000, Germany has softened the principle of descent by introducing limited ‘jus soli’ with the obligation to opt for one nationality at the age of 23 at the latest. Austria, on the other hand, has stuck to its tradition and introduced restricted reform. The article will outline the context of the two amendments. Why has the outcome been so different although both countries have faced so many similar experiences and circumstances? I will trace the development of both amendments and highlight the backgrounds of these two so contrasting decisions: two different attempts to deal with naturalisation of long-term immigrants and new-born foreigners.     

Australian Citizenship and the Two World Wars

This article surveys Australian citizenship: its distinctive characteristics in the first half of the twentieth century, and how these were changed by the experience of the two world wars. It argues that Australian citizenship, at the time of Federation, was racially exclusive, imperial, masculine and deeply anchored in the traditional view of the military obligation of the individual to the state. The world wars, especially the war of 1939‐45, encouraged some adjustment to these ideas, particularly in terms of the imperial link, women's status and the social rights of Australians. However, these conflicts were fought within a context of imperial loyalty and the intensity of their demands reinforced military service in defence of the nation as the primary civic virtue. The centrality of Anzac to Australian nationalism also perpetuated a gendered dimension to Australian citizenship. The world wars therefore, for all their dramatic impact on the lives of Australian families and the national political culture, did not force a major reconceptualisation of Australian citizenship.     

The Lebanese census of 1932 revisited. Who are the Lebanese?

The Lebanese state is analysed as a membership organization where both formal‐legal and political objectives control admission. The 1932 census played a fundamental role in the state‐building process of the Lebanese state: political representation was based on its findings, it was the basis for personal registration of the population residing on Lebanese territories, and it formed one of the cornerstones for obtaining citizenship in the Lebanese state. This article shows that the way the census figures were presented and analysed embodies issues of contest regarding the identity of the Lebanese state and who its members should be. The restrictive citizenship policy practised by the Maronite‐dominated regime until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975 is understood as a means to sustain political domination in an ethnically divided society. Lebanon provides an example of the political sensitivity of demographic figures in polities where fixed proportional representation constitutes the main principle of representative political organization.     

Democratisation and control: fast track and local government reforms in Zimbabwe

Fast track land reform in most instances has been treated as a process only entailing the redistribution of formerly white-owned land to blacks. However, there are other deeper changes that have not yet been coherently analysed, such as the nature of local power relations and the local government system; especially the manner in which it balances the interests of traditional authority and elected authorities. The local government system in fast track areas is in a state of flux. On the one hand, there is potential for a more inclusive and participatory model of local government, and on the other hand, however, official processes through legal enactments suggest that policy craftsmen are still intent on continuing with policies that promote the establishment of two competing sites of power. This paper explores the manner in which rural local government has been treated in the literature, and how it is being re-established in the aftermath of the ‘jambanja’, a period in which the ‘rule of law’ was literally suspended. Rather than depending only on official processes, the field evidence that analyses the actual practice of local government is also utilised. The paper contributes towards a more coherent understanding of the links between the colonial state's control imperative and the post-colonial's ambition to exert similar control, albeit under different political conditions.     

The Messiness of Everyday Life: Exploring Key Themes in Latin American Citizenship Studies Introduction

This section seeks to provide a brief theoretical framework for the study of citizenship in Latin America by focusing on two characteristics which are of relevance to the essays collected here: belonging and political agency. It then goes on to discuss some key themes which emerge from a reading of the collected articles: methodology; civilisation and deviation; citizenship as the organisation of subordinate inclusion; popular ideas of citizenship as 'fairness'; role of public performance in defining political relationships.     

An den Grenzen der Demokratie – Citizenship und Flucht

Current diagnoses of the crisis of democracy mostly refer to a specific type of mass democracy as it was characteristic of the second half of the 20th century. Its political space is the nation state. The presence of refugees in receiving countries now raises the basic democratic question: How can people participate in political decisions that determine their own living conditions? Refugees, lacking citizenship status, hardly have any formal political influence. The article discusses the relationship between democracy, citizenship, and forced migration in three steps. First, it presents the core arguments of the current debates on the crisis of democracy and outlines the main characteristics of democratic welfare capitalism. Thereupon, it analyzes current transformations of citizenship with regard to forced migration. It will be shown that citizenship is differentiated in the course of transnationalization and economization processes. Finally, the paper shows that potentials for democratization become visible when refugees come into view as “activist citizens” who politicize and scandalize the discrepancies between moral and legal norms as well as the limitations of democracy.     

Women's Citizenship and Neopopulism: Peru Under the Fujimori Regime

This article argues that the increased participation of women in Peruvian politics in the 1990s and the advances made in some areas of their citizenship rights are connected to the strategies put in place by some sectors of the women's movement and to the openings provided by the Fujimori regime. Some of the impact of neopopulist rule on political institutions is shown to be positively related to women's increased opportunities during this period; yet the weak rule of law and the political use of the women's agenda by an increasingly questionable regime placed the women's movement in a complex political panorama. A disaggregated analysis of the politics of women's citizenship reveals that women from the popular sectors did not benefit from the same progress in their rights claims as women from the feminist movement or women in party politics.     

Staatlich gesteuerte Tarifautonomie

The German Tarifautonomie, the state-free collective bargaining system on working conditions, can be considered as an institutionalized arrangement of political exchange between labor market associations and the state. This understanding allows to examine the state’s interests in regard to free collective bargaining as well as the state’s options to achieve his interests and to impact the social partnership activities. The article highlights the intentions, the methods and the effects of various forms of state intervention. As a result, the decade-long institutional change of the German industrial relations system can be seen inter alia as an outcome of the dynamic and flexible relationship between associations and the state. A central feature of this relationship is the finding of a guided autonomy.     

Más allá del crisol de razas: los judíos argentinos,el peronismo y la lucha por un hogar multicultural

Acknowledging the surge of Peronism as a critical turning point in Argentina's modern history -which has had a lasting impact on the contemporary society-, this study is focused on a very specific analytical perspective: the peculiarities of the process of insertion of different ethnic groups and their Argentina-born descendants during the first Peronism. The author describes changes in political representation and the various dimensions of the participative democratization process that the Peronist Argentina went through, and he later examines the Peronist efforts to mobilizing support within the Jewish-Argentinian population. Assuming that instead of promoting a traditional melting pot, the regime gave an increasing legitimacy and an unprecedented acknowledgment to multiple identities, this article asserts that before the rise of Peronism, Jewish were not always considered as part of the Argentinian polis, civitas or demos. Finally, the concept of citizenship is used as focal point and analytic framework to understand the change in the relationship among Argentinian-Jewish, the institutions, and the symbols of the Argentinian state.     

Party patronage and merit-based bureaucratic reform in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

How do ruling political parties accommodate their members’ demand for access to state patronage with a push for merit-based bureaucratic reform? I argue that political commitment to reform is contingent on electoral calculations within the party. Therefore, distortions in reform implementation reveal not only dynamics within the party itself, but also the significance of appointing the right bureaucrats to the right posts to regulate access to patronage. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Punjab, I contextualise political commitment to bureaucratic reform to provide an explanation for their unsustainability and for persistently low state capacity in countries with weak, patronage-reliant parties.     

The reflection of the Israeli ‘incorporation regime’ in the land allocation institution in Israel's urban area, 1950–1960

This article focuses on the Israeli land regime as reflected in the land allocation activities of the Development Authority (DA) in urban areas between 1950 and 1960, and particularly on how allocation of space influenced the development of a social stratum during this nation-building period. The analytical lens applies two concepts to the empirical data on DA activities during this period: ‘incorporation regime’ and ‘citizen discourse’. The outcome is an understanding of the ‘rules of the game’ supporting selective access to land allocations in given areas. Accessibility was aimed at distinct Jewish groups – wealthy, connected/networked, and veteran citizens, in line with the republican discourse in Israel at the time. The findings provide a deeper understanding of connections among institutional mechanisms, citizenship discourse and land allocation, and their expression both spatially and in terms of the fabric of life that developed within the social, political and land regime contexts.