The theory of the state and politics: a central paradox of Marxism

It is commonplace to observe that while Marx saw the withering away of the state as necessary for communism, the state in ‘Communist’ societies has done anything but wither away. This seems to indicate a paradox in the Marxian theory, whose resolution would probably tend to undermine the theory itself. It is, however, argued that the expansion of the state in ‘Communist’ societies is only apparently contradictory to the Marxian theory, and that the theory in fact provides the basis for a most adequate account of this phenomenon. But the theory does have a genuinely paradoxical quality which lies in the tension between the political and its social basis, in the socialist movement. The fundamental component of the Marxian theory is its demonstration of the dependence of the state and politics on society; the problem then is the very status of ‘the political’ as a category, and especially the meaning of a ‘marxist politics’. Marxism itself demonstrates that the very existence of ‘politics in the direct and narrow sense of the word’ is the product of an alienated society, and yet it posits a politics which necessarily exists partly in this very sense. This paper considers the Marxian theory and the problems it tries to deal with, and attempts to show that the solution to its paradox lies in resolving the real tension between the social movement and its political expression. It will be argued that terms of the dilemma are being modified by changes in the relations between the state and society. These changes make a political solution of social contradictions more possible, precisely because they reduce the abstraction of politics from society.     

The Commonwealth of Nations and the EU after the ‘Global’ Crisis: Rethinking Post-2015 ‘Global’ Development?

Abstract

The continuing ‘global’ crisis has accelerated divergences between regions, especially between the ‘rising’ global South, the European Union (EU) of the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) and Cyprus, which belongs to both the Commonwealth and the EU. This article studies the emerging ‘vertical’ divergences between the EU and the global South, especially around the so-called Economic Partnership Agreements, and the parallel ‘horizontal’ divergences among Anglophone, Francophone (the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) and Lusophone (the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) Commonwealths, with their inheritance of emulation and competition. It focuses on the possibilities of enhanced human/citizen security to propose an analysis that challenges established perspectives and points towards prospects for Commonwealth ‘schools’ of international relations/development.     

The European Union and gender mainstreaming: Constitutionally embedded or comprehensively marginalised?

This paper examines the extent to which gender mainstreaming is constitutionally embedded in the legal framework of the European Union. Within the framework of that broad question it examines three sub-questions concerning the robustness and constitutionalised nature of the E.U.'s `equality regime', the extent of adaptation to mainstreaming methodologies by supranational institutions such as the Court of Justice, and the extent of the gender dimension in the debates which are shaping the future of the European Union, especially the 2002–3Convention on the Future of the Union and the Commission's Governance White Paper of 2001.The E.U. is analysed in this article as an emergent, non-state, postnational constitutionalised polity. The first section presents this perspective, and the succeeding three sections engage with the three` sub-questions' outlined above. The conclusion suggests that as yet, while gender concerns maybe constitutionally embedded in the Treatyframe work, they are less prominent in the constitutional politics of the Convention and the Governance White Paper. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Die Bedeutung institutionalistischer Ansätze für das Verständnis von Organisations- und Managementprozessen in multinationalen Unternehmen

Es ist auffällig, dass sich die sozialwissenschaftlich orientierte Organisationsforschung nur sehr wenig und theoretisch recht einseitig mit Multinationalen Unternehmen (MNU) als Organisationen beschäftigt. Organisationstheoretische Erklärungsmodelle, die das Verhalten in und von Organisationen jenseits technischer und ökonomischer Unternehmensumwelten erklären, sind daher eher rar und erst seit kurzem in einschlägigen Forschungsarbeiten zu finden. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist, die jüngere und vorwiegend englischsprachige Diskussion über den Einfluss von Institutionen und unterschiedlichen lokalen Rationalitäten auf Organisations- und Managementprozesse in MNU aufzuarbeiten. Im Folgenden werden die Grundlagen, wesentlichen Ansätze, Kernaussagen und Konsequenzen des europäischen und amerikanischen Institutionalismus dargestellt. Insbesondere wird der Beitrag die Bedeutung, aber auch Grenzen dieser beiden Ansätze für die Analyse von Veränderungsprozessen in Multinationalen Unternehmen skizzieren und evaluieren. Im Vergleich zum noch dominanten ?evolutionären Paradigma“ in der internationalen Managementforschung wird hier das alternative Erklärungspotenzial von sozialwissenschaftlichen Institutionentheorien herausgestellt und anhand von vier verschiedenen Aspekten diskutiert: dem Einfluss des Heimatlandes, der Macht und der Autonomie von Tochtergesellschaften sowie der Entstehung transnationaler sozialer Räume.