‘Letting the Beasts Out of the Cage’: Parole in the Post-Stalin Gulag, 1953–1973

After a lapse of 15 years under Stalin, parole was reintroduced into the Soviet Gulag in 1954. For justice officials anxious to expunge Stalin's repressive legacy, the resurrection of parole signalled a return to correctionalism, societal oversight over the Gulag, and a vastly reduced rate of incarceration. In practice, though, parole exposed significant continuities with the Stalinist Gulag, including endemic corruption, overwhelming concern with production, suspicion of outside interference in penal affairs, and constant upward pressure on the inmate population. In the broader view, the experience of parole in the post-war USSR aligned closely with that of the Western world.     

The emergence of the Arab state system reconsidered

The literature on the Arab state system is based on the assumption that the establishment of the Arab League in 1945 heralded the birth of the system. The main argument of this article, however, is that the main features of the Arab system had crystallized in the mid-1930s and that the formation of the Arab League only instutionalized the existing patterns. Although the emerging system was deeply penetrated by Britain and France, the intense interactions among the core Arab states indicated that they enjoyed considerable leeway which allowed them to pursue their own interests and form an Arab system with its own patterns and features. In addition, it is argued that in spite of the artificiality of most of the Arab states, local nationalism (wataniyya) had become as strong as pan-Arabism (qawmiyya), and statehood had become a major attribute of the Arab system.     

Campaigning in an unprecedented election: issue competition in the French 2017 presidential election

Abstract

The 2017 French presidential elections featured an eventful campaign, produced astonishing results, and presented important signs of party system change. This paper analyses the main lines of divide of the demand and the supply side of electoral competition. It analyses the structure of citizens’ preferences, as well as the candidates’ strategic issue opportunities, relying on issue yield theory. To that end, it combines data from an original individual-level survey with information about the candidates’ Twitter messages. It is found that the traditional model of two-dimensional political space, characterised by an economic (left–right) and socio-cultural (integration–demarcation) dimension is largely challenged. On the supply-side, the analysis offers additional evidence for the central role played by the integration–demarcation divide, while showing that the traditional left–right conflict has not fully disappeared.     

Nonchemical Suffocation Deaths in Forensic Setting: A 6‐Year Retrospective Study of Environmental Suffocation,Smothering, Choking,and Traumatic/Positional Asphyxia*

Abstract: There are still several areas of forensic pathology mainly based on tradition, with textbooks explaining and describing common knowledge that is not supported by modern research data. This study is intended to contribute to evidence‐based data on nonchemical suffocation deaths in the forensic population aged more than 1 year. From 2000 to 2005, all autopsy cases were reviewed: age, gender, type of suffocation, and manner of death were compiled for all victims (96 cases). In general, the results from this study are concordant with the textbook literature, therefore supporting common knowledge related to manner of death in nonchemical suffocation. However, discrepancies have been underscored in smothering: smothering, contrary to the general belief, is probably not mostly homicidal, and accidental smothering is probably not that unusual. Furthermore, new data without actual literature correlates were obtained in the conducting of this study and are presented here.     

Respiratory,Circulatory, and Neurological Responses to Hanging: A Review of Animal Models

Abstract: The pathophysiology of hanging is still poorly understood. This article presents a review of eight animal models: four models of isolated occlusion of the vessels of the neck (group 1), one model of combined tracheal and vessel occlusion (group 2), and three models of true animal hanging (group 3). Occlusion of the airway passages in group 2 did not accelerate respiratory arrest compared to group 1. Cessation of cerebral blood flow, rather than airway obstruction, seems to be the main cause of respiratory decline. In general, muscular movements ceased after 1–3.5 min and early generalized tonic‐clonic convulsions were described. Complete circulatory collapse seems to occur between 4 and 8.5 min. These observations from animal models of hanging are compared with the data collected from filmed human hangings. Avenues to improve animal models are discussed.     

From Indifference to Obsession: The Role of National State Celebrations in Iraq, 1921–2003

Rulers and elites have invented rituals and commemorations in order to serve their interests—to legitimize their hegemony as well as to maintain the existing social and political order. This process is most salient in the new modern states, whose national identity and collective memory are at an early stage of construction. This article analyses Iraq's state celebrations in the context of its state formation and nation-building processes. Before the US occupation in April 2003, Iraq had been governed by four regimes: the monarchy (1921–1958), ‘Abd al-Karim Qassem (1958–1963), the ‘Arif Brothers (1963–1968), and the Ba‘th (1968–2003). This article shows how successive Iraqi regimes moved from indifference to obsession with regard to celebrating national holidays. It advances three major arguments. First, each regime attempted to de-legitimize its predecessor by erasing or significantly changing its national calendar of holidays. These changes adversely affected the ability of the Iraqi polity to establish a shared historical memory serving as a basis for its national identity. Second, though a modern invention of British colonialism, Iraq's cultural artefacts of celebrations were taken from a mixed reservoir: foreign—both Western European and Eastern European—and local or ‘traditional’, either Islamic or pre-Islamic. The end result of the use of this wide symbolic market was a calendar reflecting a hybrid political culture. Third, the Iraqi case study shows that an inverse correlation exists between the calendar's density and the regime's perceived legitimacy. It seems that a ‘thick’ calendar reflects a shortage of legitimacy while a ‘thin’ calendar reflects a more secure and legitimized regime.     

Reversing microcrystalline tests--an analytical approach to recycling of microcrystals from drugs of abuse

A combined analysis of microcrystalline tests followed by LC-MS or GC-MS analysis is described. Microcrystalline tests are shown to be non-destructive as addition products formed were easily dissociated after the application of an appropriate solvent. Subsequent analysis of the sample was done to quantify the recovery of the drug. Examples were performed using the date rape drug γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and the synthetic opioid methadone.     

The Welfare Agenda of the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe: Combining Welfare Chauvinism,Producerism and Populism*

Recent scholarship on the populist radical right tends to imprecisely describe the welfare agenda of this party family with reference to its key ideological characteristics of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism. We propose an alternative analytical framework that considers the multidimensionality of welfare state positions and the “deservingness criteria” that underlie ideas about welfare entitlement. Applying this framework to a sample of four European populist radical right parties, we conclude that three interrelated frames inform their welfare agenda. These parties, we argue, advocate social closure not only on the basis of the deservingness criterion of identity (welfare chauvinism), but also on criteria of control, attitude, and reciprocity (welfare producerism) and on an antagonism between the people and the establishment (welfare populism). Understanding the welfare agenda of the populist radical right requires us to move beyond welfare chauvinism and to reconsider the concept of welfare producerism and its interaction with welfare chauvinism.