From Corporatism to Partisan Politics: Social Policy Making under Strain in Switzerland

The literature on neo‐corporatist agreements in social and labor market policy in the 1990s points to a decline of concertation in European countries with a long‐standing tradition of corporatist negotiation. This article identifies a similar trend in Switzerland and argues that three destabilizing factors account for it: 1) retrenchment pressure and ideological polarization prevent compromises; 2) the emergence of new social demands and interests challenges the homogeneity and legitimacy of peak organizations and thus their bargaining power; 3) increasing media coverage tends to open up the traditionally confidential and selective sphere of corporatist negotiation and weakens the social partners’ ability to reach agreements. The impact of these factors on neo‐corporatist bargaining is tested in Switzerland, a case where corporatist negotiations used to be particularly decisive in social policy making. Empirical evidence comes from a cross‐time comparison of two major social policies: Unemployment insurance and pension reforms in the 1970s and in the 1990s. In the last decade, the main locus of decision‐making shifted from the sphere of interest groups to partisan politics. In parliament, the political parties were able to draft bills enjoying wide acceptance thanks to compensations offered to groups particularly vulnerable to new social risks.     

Contemporary Left‐wing Populism in Latin America: Leadership,Horizontalism, and Postdemocracy in Chávez's Venezuela

Critical engagement with the case of Chavismo in Venezuela can offer valuable insights for a fuller understanding of contemporary populism in Latin America. While for some scholars Chávez's populism has fostered popular empowerment, others dwell on the newly confirmed tensions between populism, liberal rights, and democratic proceduralism. This article embraces both positions but moves beyond their one‐sidedness to cast Chavista populism as an inherently contradictory phenomenon that has constituted an ambivalent and transitory process in response to the gradual closure of liberal (post)democracy. Chavista “caesaro‐plebeian” populism is construed as a site of tension and contention, which entails both promises and dangers for democracy. To make these points, the article draws on the discursive analysis of populism and on a new, productive shift in the study of populism in Venezuela, which pursues ethnographic field research on social movements instead of focusing exclusively on the figure of the leader.     

Government or governance? The case of the French local political system

The structure of the local political system has completely changed since decentralisation. However, the presentation of peripheral power made by Pierre Grémion before decentralisation has not really been updated. Most academic research concentrates on either rural or urban issues. From the analysis of the current attempt of the French state to enhance co‐operation between communes, it is possible to make a general presentation of the current decentralised political system. Local authorities are increasingly part of a multi‐actor system combining many public and private institutions. However, they also are developing a specific political mode of organisation and relationship with one another. Local governments are the political cores of the multi‐actor system, in charge of local management.     

Parties,the state and society in Greece: Continuity within change

The new Greek party system which emerged after the restoration of democracy in 1974 is characterised by a combination of features indicative of both continuity and change in comparison with the party system that existed before the military coup of 1967. This article concludes that in the present phase the contribution of parties to institutional consolidation and the stability of party identification, though not negligible, remains uncertain. It is likely to be influenced by variables both internal and external to the political system, relating to party interaction and to the relationship of parties with state and society.     

After citizenship: autonomy of migration,organisational ontology and mobile commons

This paper explores the relevance of the autonomy of migration approach for understanding the role of citizenship in the sovereign control of mobility. There is an insurgent configuration of ordinary experiences of mobility emerging against this regime of control. At its core is the sharing of knowledge and infrastructures of connectivity, affective cooperation, mutual support and care among people on the move. The sovereign regime of mobility control is displaced on the level on which it attempts to take hold: the everyday movements of migrants. The frenetic fixation with security is challenged by the creation of common worlds of existence; the obsession with governance is replaced by inhabiting social spaces below the radar of existing political structures. This paper attempts to contribute to a reconstruction of this mundane ontology of transmigration, an ontology which we will describe as the mobile commons of migration.     

Changes in the lipid composition of latent fingerprint residue with time after deposition on a surface

The work described in this report was focused on generating increased knowledge of fingerprint chemistry, particularly the composition of a latent fingerprint at the time it is deposited, and the chemical changes in lipid components that occur over time. Fingerprints from five male donors (aged 25-34 years) were collected and aged under controlled conditions. The prints were then sampled at set intervals, solvent extracted with dichloromethane, co-derivatized with MSTFA and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was shown that there was loss of squalene from prints stored in the light or in the dark. Loss was more rapid in the light, with squalene in prints from some donors not detected after 9 days storage. For these same donors, squalene was still detected after 33 days storage in the dark, but at much lower levels than in fresh prints. For saturated fatty acids (tetradecanoic, palmitic and stearic acid) there was a trend towards an increase in levels of these substances during storage (up to about 20 days) followed by a decrease back to original levels or below. This was the case for samples stored in the light or in the dark. For palmitoleic acid, a similar trend was seen. For oleic acid, this trend was seen for samples stored in the dark. For samples stored in the light the general trend was a decrease in level over the storage period (up to 33 days).     

Reviews

Roger Manser, Failed Transitions: The Eastern European Economy and Environment since the Fall of Communism. New York: The New Press, 1993, ix + 195 pp., $22.95. UK edition, The Squandered Dividend: The Free Market and the Environment in Eastern Europe. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 1993.

Jacques Nagels, La tiers‐mondisation de l'ex‐URSS? Brussels: Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1993.

John Murray, The Russian Press from Brezhnev to Yeltsin: Behind the Paper Curtain. Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar, 1994, viii + 280 pp.

James D. White, The Russian Revolution 1917–1921. A Short History. London: Edward Arnold, 1994, viii + 312 pp., £12.99 p/b.