‘There Can Be No Revolution without Culture’: Reading and Writing in the Bolivarian Revolution

Under Hugo Chávez's ‘Bolivarian Revolution’, the government made itself present in all stages of literary production, applying the official idea of reading and writing as ‘socialist practices’. The Bolivarian government envisaged a popular counter‐hegemony, courting popular support while delegitimising cultural elites and reinforcing class tensions. Bolivarian cultural policy is anachronistic in an age of global literary markets, while the emphasis on a national collective of writers over internationally promoted representative writers of the revolution is particularly radical.     

Rejecting Change

正British voters overwhelmingly reject an alternative voting system The British electorate,in only the second ever national referendum held in their history (the first was on joining the EU,over 35 years ago) rejected alterations to their voting system from the current first-past-the-post system to a form of alternative voting similar to that used     

An Unexpected Outcome

For the first time since World War Ⅱ, the UK now has a coalition government. The elec-tion held in the UK on May 6 failed to deliver a majority for any of the three main oarties-the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats and the ruling Labor Party. After five days of negotiations, sitting Prime Minister Gordon Brown stepped down on May 11.     

Cameron in China

British Prime Minister David Cameron's fast official visit to China in November had two objectives.One was to lead one of the largest trade delegations ever accompanied by a UK prime minister to an increasingly important market.The other was for him to meet,and get to know,the Chinese leadership and key figures in the government.     

The internal development of the Ukrainian parliament

At the time of independence, parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union were highly underdeveloped institutions. Since that time, many parliaments have begun the process of building legislative capacity in order to participate more fully in the process of governance. One aspect of building legislative capacity is the internal structure of the parliament. This article examines the internal development of one of these parliaments—the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine—focusing on the legislative process, the budget process, the committee system and faction organization. The article identifies where progress has been made in each of these areas, and points to key aspects that require critical attention in order to ensure future progress. Finally, it discusses how one development project—the Parliamentary Development Project—has used a ‘comparative action research’ approach to aid key decision makers in the Verkhovna Rada in building legislative capacity.