昂山素季与缅甸政治

反对派领袖昂山素季赢得国际社会的关注与民众的尊敬。自上世纪80年代末以来,她的个人命运同整个缅甸息息相关。她与军政府最终达成一些共识。2002年5月6日,昂山素季无条件获释。通过解除施加在她身上的桎梏,缅甸也许将能逐步实现全国和解。     

The Glass of Life: Medieval and Modern Stories on the Struggle to Gain and Maintain Honour

The drive to gain and maintain good reputation (honour, good name) in society functions as a primary core value in Middle Eastern and Asian societies. This phenomenon is best reflected in real-life stories. This article relates stories from the Persian world, selected from medieval Persian texts, as well as from twentieth- and twenty-first-century Iranian and Afghan short stories. While the modern story is written in a different context than the medieval epic poem or romance, the theme of gaining and maintaining the good name persists throughout. Medieval texts portray this all-encompassingstruggle in the life of the legendary heroic warrior, who models the struggle for protagonists in modern stories. For the protagonist, to have reputation means that society speaks well of them. A good name is to have a public name. But much more, the good name must include the larger family and one's tribe. It is the family name. Thirdly, the protagonist who seeks to gain and maintain a good name lives beyond themselves. Indeed, they gain a greater name. The stories are frequently laced with tragedy, as protagonists engage in what are considered to be dishonourable deeds in order to maintain their honour and good name.     

Australia and the Struggle for Soviet Jewry: 1961–1972

The plight of Soviet Jewry emerged as a major issue for World Jewry after the Second World War. Both Israel and Jewish Diaspora communities campaigned to give Soviet Jews either freedom of religion or the right to emigrate. The 1960s saw the promotion of the latter, with the slogan “Let My People Go”. Whilst geographically isolated and only being a medium power, the Australian government played a key role, with Australian politicians at times acting against the advice of the public service. The politicians were swayed by idealism, whereas department officials pursued a pragmatic, realist approach, being only concerned with what they saw as Australia's core foreign policy interests.     

'Diacuí Killed Iracema': Indigenism, Nationalism and the Struggle for Brazilianness

If categories of 'race' and nationality are social and historical constructions laden with irrefutable meaning and consequences, then ethnic identities, like any other forms of identity, are means to other ends that may or may not be particular. Twentieth‐century indigenist history in Brazil reveals how the cultural politics of indigenism and nationalism can coalesce in a tautological politics of identity that undermines individual liberty and democratic heterogeneity. The concepts 'post‐indigenism,'post‐nationalism' and 'post‐identity' point to the strategic suspension of the infinite heterogeneity of the political subject as a means to widen the ground of shared experience and common interests beyond the realm of hollow and oppressive essentialisms.     

The Power of Mass Mobilisation: Argentina's Struggle for the Legalisation of Abortion

The mass pro-abortion mobilisation which took place in 2018 has been arguably the most successful attempt in Argentina's history at altering the existing legal framework regulating access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Never before has any legislative project legalising abortion reached the upper chamber of the Congress. Could this result be attributed to the support it received from a mass social movement? What are the limitations of mass mobilisations when a structural change to a long-lasting narrative is required? In order to address these questions, the issue of abortion will be examined through the perspective of power-making and counterpower-making strategies.     

The Struggle for Recognition of the Indigenous Voice: Amerindians in Guyanese Politics

Abstract

In Guyana’s racialised geography, Amerindians live in scattered villages in the vast hinterland that covers 90% of the country. Amerindian iconography is appropriated in state-making, even while Amerindians themselves are consigned to a patron–client relationship with the dominant ‘coastlander’ society. In the late 1950s, Amerindians made up only 4% of the national population but voted as a bloc in the national elections of 1957, 1961 and 1964, rallying around Stephen Campbell, the first Amerindian member of the legislature. Their unified position allowed their political leaders to negotiate a commitment to the settlement of Amerindian land claims as a condition of Independence in 1966. After losing its parliamentary majority in 2011, the coastlander-based party in power has been working to disrupt cohesion among Amerindian community leaders. The government uses a variety of funds to reward community leaders who will sign pre-prepared resolutions at the statutory National Toshaos Council meetings, and denies funds to leaders and communities that protest at government neglect and mismanagement of the traditional areas claimed by the indigenous peoples.     

The Janus‐Face of Negociation Democracy. The Effects of Consensus Democracy,Direct Democracy and Decentralization on State Intervention in Swiss Cantons

Dieser Beitrag analysiert die Varianzen der quantifizierbaren Staatstätigkeit in den 26 Schweizer Kantonen der 1980er und 1990er Jahre. Im Mittelpunkt der erklärenden Grssen stehen dabei Formen der Verhandlungsdemokratie, insbesondere der Konkordanz, dezentraler Entscheidungsstrukturen und direktdemokratischer Beteiligungsrechte. Wir zeigen, dass die Erweiterung des Konzeptes der Verhandlungsdemokratie auf weitere Staatsorgane neben der Regierung zur analytischen Unschärfe fhrt, da die verschiedenen Ausprägungen der politischen Machtteilung mit unterschiedlichen Wirkungen auf den Umfang des ffentlichen Sektors verbunden sind. Während die Konkordanz im Sinne der parteifrmigen Organisation politischer und sozialer Konflikte tendenziell die staatliche Intervention begnstigt, zgeln konstitutionelle Vetospieler die Staatstätigkeit, indem direktdemokratische Mitwirkung und dezentrale Machtteilung dem Staat Fesseln auf der Einnahmen‐und Ausgabenseite anlegen.     

柬埔寨媒介:多党制下的新闻控制与争夺

柬埔寨媒介在联合国过渡政府时期获得了自由发展的机会,产生了多种声音的报纸和广播电台.之后“两首相制”引发的军事冲突,使得来之不易的新闻自由被权力斗争所湮没.目前,柬埔寨虽然实行多党制民主,但媒介仍未能逃脱各种政治和经济势力的操控,沦落为党派宣传机构和索贿工具.     

Compensating the Victims of Human Rights Abuses in the German Democratic Republic: The Struggle for Recognition

This article examines the evolution of the compensation legislation for victims of human rights abuses in the former German Democratic Republic, and considers the reasons for the continuing dissatisfaction among victims' organisations following the most recent significant revision of the relevant laws in 2007. It charts political debates about adequate compensation for the victims and compares these discourses with the positions of the victims' organisations, demonstrating the ways in which party politics both influenced victims' perception of their own situation and raised expectations of a ‘recognition’ (Axel Honneth) of the victims in German society which has yet to be achieved. The article argues that, despite apparent agreement, the agendas of politicians and victims' organisations were ultimately incompatible.