Arbeiterbewegung von rechts? Motive und Grenzen einer imaginären Revolte

The article examines populist and völkisch orientations of unionized workers, some of them active members of workers’ councils. It empirically shows how, in respondents’ everyday consciousness, protest motifs are intermingled with an ethnicized view of the social question. Völkisch populism can be interpreted as a Polanyi-type movement that is motivated by problems generated by post-growth capitalism, presenting itself as a venture to give back power to the people. Its revolt remains an imaginary one, though, for, ultimately in accordance with existing power relations, it aims at reconstructing an irretrievable past. Our empirical results keep a distance from monocausal explanations, though call to mind issues of class that have long been neglected. As workers perceive the current distribution of wealth as unjust, yet don’t believe in any possibility for change, they are spontaneously inclined to redefine existing top-down conflicts into inclusion-exclusion types. Professional right-wing populists take up and aggravate this tendency of exclusive solidarity and thereby pose a serious challenge for the unions as well as for democratic civil societies.     

Demokratie und Wohlfahrtsstaat: eine europäische Regimeform unter dem Stress der europäischen Integration

Staaten sind nicht nur "vertikale" Organisationen politischer Herrschaft. Vielmehr basiert die staatliche Herrschaftsordnung auf Strukturen der Binnenintegration ("Vergemeinschaftung"), die über alle Konflikte und Besonderheiten hinweg das horizontale Verhältnis der Bürger zueinander bestimmen. Diese Binnenintegration muss nicht "ethnischer", sondern kann sehr wohl republikanischer Natur sein und dann als sozialintegrative Voraussetzung für Demokratie und Wohlfahrtsstaat dienen. Wenn das zutrifft, stellt sich die Frage nach dem möglichen Modus politischer Integration im europäischen Massstab. Gibt es Traditionen, Identitäten und Zielbestimmungen ("finalité"), die zwischen allen Europäern Vertrauen und Solidarität begründen können? Der Verfasser prüft die in Betracht kommenden Antworten auf diese Frage und kommt zu dem skeptischen Ergebnis, dass die sozialmoralischen Grundlagen einer europaweiten Demokratie und eines kontinentalen Wohlfahrtsregimes keineswegs evident sind.     

A: Reviews: general

PALESTINIAN PEASANTS AND OTTOMAN OFFICIALS: RURAL ADMINISTRATION AROUND SIXTEENTH‐CENTURY JERUSALEM. By Amy Singer. (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

THE PASHA'S PEASANTS: LAND, SOCIETY, AND ECONOMY IN LOWER EGYPT, 1740–1858. By Kenneth M. Cuno. (Cambridge Middle East Library, 27.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 295 pp., tables, appendices, index. £35.00 (hb).

SOCIALISM AND NATIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. Edited by Mete Tunçay and Erik Jan Zürcher. London & New York, British Academic Press, in association with the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. 222 pp. £39.50.

INSIDE THE ARAB WORLD. By Michael Field. London, John Murray, 1994. 439 pp., maps. £25.

STRUGGLE AND SURVIVAL IN THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Edmund Burke III. London & New York, I. B. Taurís, 1993. xi, 393 pp. £14.95 (pb).

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SYRIA UNDER ASAD. By Volker Perthes. London & New York, I. B. Tauris, 1995. 298 pp. £39.50.

THE ARAB MINORITY IN ISRAEL 1967–1991: POLITICAL ASPECTS. By Jacob M. Landau. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993.

THE ARAB MINORITY IN ISRAEL'S ECONOMY: PATTERNS OF ETHNIC INEQUALITY. By Noah Lewin‐Epstein and Moshe Semyonov. (Social Inequality Series.) Oxford, Westview Press, 1993.

THE HEALTH CARE OF THE ARABS IN ISRAEL. By Nira Reiss. (Westview Special Studies on the Middle East.) Oxford, Westview Press, 1991.

THE GULF: ENERGY AND GLOBAL SECURITY. By Charles F. Doran and Stephen W. Buck. London, Lynne Rienner, 1991. 228 pp. £27.50.

IRAN AND THE COLD WAR: THE AZERBAIJAN CRISIS OF 1946. By Louise Fawcett. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 181 pp. £32.50.

THE GULF CONFLICT, 1990–1991: DIPLOMACY AND WAR IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER. By Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh. London, Faber & Faber, 1994. xlv, 504 pp.

IRAN AND IRAQ: THE THREAT FROM THE NORTHERN GULF. By Anthony H. Cordesman. Oxford, Westview Press, 1994. x, 378 pp. £45.50 (hb), £16.95 (pb).

THE UNITED NATIONS, IRAN, AND IRAQ: HOW PEACEMAKING CHANGED. By Cameron R. Hume. Buckingham, Open University Press, 1994. xi, 269 pp. £27.50.

THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PETROLEUM COMPANY. Volume 2: THE ANGLO‐IRANIAN YEARS 1928–1954. By J. H. Bamberg. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994. 639 pp. 55 tables, 5 maps, 20 graphs and diagrams, 88 illustrations, 3 appendices, index. £55.00 (hb).

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRENDS IN CENTRAL ASIA. Edited by Shirin Akiner. London, British Academic Press, 1994. ix, 205 pp.

FAITH AND FREEDOM: WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MUSLIM WORLD. Edited by Mahnaz Afkhami. London, I. B. Tauris, 1995. xi, 244 pp: £12.95 (pb).

DECIPHERING THE SIGNS OF GOD: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ISLAM. By Annemarie Schimmel. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1994. 317 pp. £39.50.

BEYOND FAITH AND INFIDELITY: THE SUFI POETRY AND TEACHINGS OF MAHMUD SHABISTARI. By Leonard Lewisohn. (Curzon Sufi Series.) Richmond, Curzon Press, 1995. 344 pp. £14.99.

GIVING VOICE TO STONES: PLACE AND IDENTITY IN PALESTINIAN LITERATURE. By Barbara McKean Parmenter. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1994. ix, 117 pp. One map.

GENIZAH RESEARCH AFTER 90 YEARS: THE CASE OF JUDAEO‐ARABIC: PAPERS READ AT THE THIRD CONGRESS OF THE SOCIETY FOR JUDAEO‐ARABIC STUDIES. Edited by Joshua Blau and Stefan C. Reif. (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 47.) Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 1 illustration, 3 indexes, xiv, 176 pp. $54.95.

ARABIC SOCIOLINGUISTICS: ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES. Edited by Yasir Suleiman. Richmond, Curzon Press, 1994. xv, 273 pp.

DIE MAMLUKISCHE ARCHITEKTUR IN ÄGYPTEN UND SYRIEN. By Michael Meinecke. (Abhandlung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairos, Islamische Reihe, Band 5.) Gluckstadt, Verlag J. J. Augustin GmbH, 1994. 2 vols., 819 pp. 142 pis., 153 plans.     

Post-Cabinet Careers of Regional Ministers in Germany, 1990–2011

The study of ministerial careers in Germany is rather new. So far it has been mainly restricted to the federal level and to the career pathways up until cabinet exit. This article, by contrast, concentrates on the post-cabinet careers of regional ministers. Drawing from the scarce literature we first sketch out career patterns of regional ministers prior to and during their time in the regional cabinet. The main focus, though, is on the post-cabinet biographies of all regional ministers in the sixteen German Länder since unification. Our empirical analysis reveals the regional cabinet as the career apex for most ministers. Looking at those ministers who do move up the political ladder after leaving the cabinet shows a clear preference for the national over the European level and the executive office over the legislative mandate. Variation in post-cabinet careers seems not only to be influenced by party, Land and ministerial office (Prime Minister vs normal minister) but also by the causes and circumstances of exit from the cabinet (exit type). These empirical results represent a first step into a new research field – lying waste since Blondel's early attempt in 1991 – and will hopefully provide a starting point for more comprehensive and comparative analysis.     

Transnational organized crime challenges for future research

This essay and review seeks to assess the state of empirical research on transnational organized crime, drawing on a review of the English language academic literature. It identifies major themes and research questions as well as methodological approaches, and summarizes key findings. It also addresses challenges to meaningful research, arguing that internationally coordinated research projects will be necessary in the future to arrive at the insights necessary to inform theory and policy.     

The Cold War and European integration, 1947-63

The author discusses the impact the Cold War had on European Integration and, in particular, on the American efforts in support of that initiative. He shows that the perceived Communist threat was an important but not the only motivating force behind America's endorsement of a unified Europe. The other motif he singles out independently of, although not unrelated to, the Cold War was the American aim to contain a renascent Germany. It was this purpose, he maintains, that determined the American long-term option for a supranational structure for an integrated Europe after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany.