Border communities: microstudies on everyday life,politics and memory in European Societies from 1945 to the present

Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of Nationalism. New York: Paragon House, 1990, bibliography, XXII, 445 pp., $35.00

Pearson, Thomas S., Russian Officialdom in Crisis: Autocracy and Local Self‐Government, 1861–1900. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 284 pp.

Charles A. Ruud, Russian Entrepreneur Publisher Ivan Sytin of Moscow 1851–1934. Montreal &; Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1990.

George Jackson, editor, Dictionary of the Russian Revolution. New York, Westport, and London: Greenwood Press. 1989, xviii, 704 pp., $75.00.

Adam Westoby, The Evolution of Communism. New York: The Free Press, 1989, 318 pp., $22.95

Mark von Hagen, Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship: The Red Army and the Soviet Socialist State, 1917–1930. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990, index, xviii, 367 pp.

Marvin Sicker, The Strategy of Soviet Imperialism: Expansion in Eurasia. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988, viii, pp. 172

Samuel Farber, Before Stalinism. The Rise and Fall of Soviet Democracy. New York: Verso, 1990, 288 pp.

Neil Fodor, The Warsaw Treaty Organization: A Political and Organizational Analysis. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990; xv, 235 pp., $45.00.

Henry R. Huttenbach, ed., Soviet Nationality Policies: Ruling Ethnic Groups in the USSR. London: Mansell Publishing Ltd., 1990; xvi, 302 pp.

Alexander Shtromas &; Morton A. Kaplan, eds., The Soviet Union &; the Challenge of the Future, Vol. 3, Ideology, Culture &; Nationality. New York: Paragon House, 1989, xxxix, 760 pp., index, $39.95.

Alfred Erich Senn, Lithuania Awakening. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, illustrations, index, 294 pp.

Robert A. Vitas, The United States and Lithuania: The Stimson Doctrine of Nonrecognition. New York: Praeger, 1990, 176 pp.

Pedro Ramet, ed., Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies: Christianity Under Stress. Volume II. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1990; index, ix, 454 pp.

Martha B. Olcott (ed.), The Soviet Multinational State: Readings and Documents. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1990. xii and 605 pp.

Bohdan Nahaylo and Victor Swoboda, Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR. New York: Free Press, 1990, 432 pp. Illustrated, $29.85

Erhard Stölting, Eine Weltmacht zerbricht. Nationalitäten und Religionen in der UdSSR. Frankfurt/Man, Eichborn Verlag, 311 pp., 29,80 DM

Vladimir Tismaneanu, In Search of Civil Society: Independent Peace Movements in the Soviet Bloc. New York: Routledge, Chapman, and Hall, 1990, index, x, 184 pp., $35.00

Murray Feshback and Alfred Friendly Jr., Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature Under Siege. New York: Basic Books, 1992, 376 pages, $24.00.

Philip R. Pryde. Environmental Management in the Soviet Union. Foreword by Zeev Wolfson. Cambridge, UK &; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991; preface, xx, 314 pp., maps, tables, photos, index and biblio. $49.50 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Ellen Frankel Paul, Ed., Totalitarianism at the ‘Crossroads. New Brunswick (US) &; London: Transition Books, 1990.

Jorgen Kühl, De tyske mindretal i Sovjetunionen ["The German minorities in the Soviet Union"] with a summary in German. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 1990; xxxi, 159 pp.

Samvel Shakhmuradian, Sumgaitskaia Tragedia v Svidetel'stvakh Ochevidtzev ("Sumgait Through the Eyes of the Victims"). Erevan: Armianskii Fond Kul'tury, 1989.

Stephen White, John Gardner, George Schopflin and Tony Saich, Communist and Postcommunist Political Systems, An Introduction. Third Edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990, xi, 357 pp.

Karl Kaser, Südosteuropäische Geschichte und Geschichts‐Wissenschafi: Eine Einführung. Wien &; Koln:Bohlau Verlag, 1990, maps, graphs, 308 pp.

Marko Pavlyshyn, Glasnost in Context: On the Recurrence of Liberalizations in Central and East European Literatures and Cultures. Berg European Studies Series. New York, Oxford, Munich: Berg, 1990, bibliography, index, xi, 182 pp, cloth.

Milo Kominek, I Pod Oblohou Je Peklo. Dokumentace. Second Enlarged Edition. Toronto: Moravia Publishing, In., 1991; 318 pp., $23.00.

Ralf Dahrendorf, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe in a Letter Intended to have been Sent to a Gentleman in Warsaw. New York: Random House, Inc., 1990; 163 pp., $17.95

István Deák, Beyond Nationalism, A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848–1918. Oxford, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990; XII, 273 pp.

Trond Gilberg, Nationalism and Communism in Romania: The Rise and Fall of Ceausescu's Personal Dictatorship, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990, x, 289 pp.

Johann Böhm, Das Nationalsozialistische Deutschland und die Deutsche Volksgruppe in Rumänien 1936–1944: Das Verhältnis der Deutschen Volksgruppe zum Dritten Reich und zum rumänischen Stoat sowie der interne Widerstreit zwischen den politischen Gruppen. (Europäische Hochschulschriften: Series 3, Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 223) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1985. 264 pp. maps.

Gale Stokes, Politics as Development. The Emergence of Political Parties in Nineteenth‐Century Serbia. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990, 1 map, bibliography, index, 400 pp.

William Zimmerman, Open Borders, Nonalignment, and the Political Evolution of Yugoslavia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987

Jack Wertheimer, Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, statistical tables, index, ix, 181 pp.,$42.00.

Alfred D. Low, Soviet Jewry and Soviet Policy. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, No. 281, 1990, xv, 216 pp., notes, bibliography, index, $32.00

Anthony Polonsky, ed., ’My Brother's Keeper?’ Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust. NY and London: Routledge, 1990, index, 242 pp.

Ronald Sanders, Shores of Refuge: A Hundred Years of Jewish Emigration. New York: Schocken Books, 1988. xiii, 673 pp.

Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990; xviii, 461 pp.

Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, index, 191 pp.

Stanislaw Baranczak, Breathing Under Water and Other East European Essays. Cambridge &; London: Harvard University Press, 1990; notes, index, 245 pp., cloth

Jan Kott, ed., Four Decades of Polish Essays. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press; xi, 396 pp., $49.95 ($15.95, paper).

Aurel Braun, Ed. The Soviet‐East European Relationship in the Gorbachev Era: The Prospects for Adaptation. Boulder, CO, San Francisco, London: Westview Press, 1990. XI, 249 pp., $20.00 (paper).     

Diversity recognition and minority representation in Central and Southeast Europe: a comparative analysis

The need to handle ethnocultural diversity and the external pressures of Euro-Atlantic integration have led to the development of complex minority rights regimes in Central and Southeast European states. The aim of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of the political representation dimension of these regimes, and to investigate how the regulations in this domain are related to the more general attitude of states toward diversity recognition and registration. For this purpose, we classify the states according to a series of variables concerning the manner in which ethnocultural diversity is recognized and portrayed, as well as the regulations concerning the representation of minorities, and identify patterns of their incidence. The formal-legal analysis of the constitutions, minority protection laws and of the electoral legislation of the included countries reveals a clear connection between the general attitude of the state toward diversity and the incidence of autonomies, and a less unequivocal, yet strong relationship in the case of minority representation in the national polity.     

The united states naval blockade of Iraq: A foreign policy and international law analysis

The current Persian Gulf crisis may signal a new period in human history in which the United Nations is viewed as the forum of first resort for the resolution of international harms and disputes. This is particularly striking since the Security Council, because of east-west divisions, has been unable to act in a collective manner to addresses serious international breaches of the peace. This two part essay deals with the events leading up to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the step-by-step reaction by the U.S. Government, the imposition of the U.S. Navy blockade of Kuwaiti shipping, and the legal justification for the introduction of forces. The reader is left to decide whether the Rule of Law and Charter ideals of collective security, are the real victors in the current conflict.

Part 1 of the essay examines the detailed economic and political causes for the Iraqi invasion. Even though some commentators have characterized Saddam Hussein's entry into Kuwait as “naked aggression” which was driven by Saddam Hussein's hamartia to become the new Nasser, OPEC production disputes, allegations of excessive Kuwaiti pumping of the Rumalia oil field (straddles both countries), the need for an Iraqi coastline, and large Iraqi debt to Kuwait are seen as “rational” reasons for the invasion. A historical examination of the Iran-Iraq conflict is grafted into part one to assist the reader in appreciating the fact that belligerent conduct is viewed in Iraq as a normative mode of conflict resolution and that in the context of all current and future military and diplomatic interchanges, the proven bellicosity of Iraq should figure prominently in the approaches which are taken.

The U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf must be viewed in the context of the U.S.'s diplomatic and economic interests in the region. The essay concludes that the actions of the United States in the first forty days after the Iraqi invasion were masterful because of the skilled use of the U.N. security council (to build a broad political base) as well as the introduction of limited force (imposition of a naval blockade) to signal to Saddam Hussein that the international community was serious in its resolve. The shooting which is taking place is most unfortunate; but U.S. efforts were properly tailored to keep the world coalition intact and prevent a shooting war. Until approximately 3 weeks into the actual conflict, the level of anti-U.S. rhetoric was noticeably small- a triumph for U.S. foreign policy makers in forming a world-wide consensus and maintaining it and a triumph for international respect for law.

The final portion of Part 1 deals with the history of blockades before and after the 1945 U.N. Charter. Blockade actions have been used since the Middle Ages but the 1856 Pact of Paris and the 1909 Declaration of London are the modern sources for the Law of Blockade. Becuase of the sheer intensity of conflict in the First and Second World Wars, the normative rules contained in the two written sources of law fell into disuse. Even so, most of the substantive provisions from the 19th and early 20th century doctrines are incorporated into contemporary law and policy. Commander Rosen argues strenuously for a modernization of the international conventions to codify the rules of blockade since, given the utter destructiveness of modern warfare, blockades remain a relatively benign use of force in those situations in which use of force is legally justified. But, however laudable the U.N. Charter ideals are to sharply restrict the use of force to exceptionally limited circumstances and make state aggression illegal, situations will arise in which use of force will be necessary to respond to illegal aggression. Resurrection of the old concept of pacific blockade (similar to the naval action taken in connection with the Cuban Missile Crisis) is urged because unanimity in the U.N. is transitory and nations, particularly superpowers, need the legal flexibility to react to illegal aggression with limited uses of force--below the threshold uses of force authorized by the U.N. Charter.     

Do Electoral Risks Moderate the Effect of Partisan and Electoral Cycles on Debt-Financed Local Spending?

Governments’ use of debt as a political instrument has been widely studied from the perspective of partisan and electoral cycles, mainly concerning central government. On the whole, previous studies have attempted to determine the effects of political ideology and the proximity of elections on the opportunistic use of public spending. The current study aims to broaden the scope of attention to the effect of partisan and electoral cycles on debt, by means of a broader consideration of the motives that lead politicians to take on a deficit and that are usually linked to the associated electoral risk. More particularly, we examine whether, during the electoral period, greater confidence in re-election can modify party behaviour concerning the use of public spending, and if so, whether the change is greater or smaller depending on the ruling party’s ideology. The results obtained show that local administrations need to incur debt, although politicians take on more liability than is appropriate to their demographic and economic characteristics, especially in an election year. It was also found that political stability favours a reduction in the public deficit, a pattern that is maintained in electoral periods. This effect was found to be independent of the partisan cycle.     

Poderes fácticos,comunicación y gobernabilidad: un acercamiento conceptual

The category of factual powers has become a fashionable term. Beyond observable differences in the journalistic, academic or political interests of the scholarly approaches to the topic, the author considers that it is possible to affirm that this question is inextricably related to the issue of democracy, and specifically its viability and governability. This article is framed within this analytic and contextual perspective -factual powers, democracy and governability. Given that the category has not a univocal meaning, after drawing basic differences among the various interest groups, pressure groups and factual powers, it characterizes those emerging social actors capable to dispute the power of formal institutions and analyzes the particular composition of the mass media.     

Members of Parliament representing Barcelona during the rise of the Spanish parliamentary system (1834–54)

SUMMARY

The province of Barcelona became one of the major industrial regions at the outset of the first industrial revolution in Spain. The province of Barcelona had a distinctive place in the Spanish monarchy and it was an area where agriculture was the most important economic activity. This situation coincided with the beginning of liberal parliamentarism in Spain and it determined the profile of the Catalan MPs. For this reason, this article explores the profiles of the 85 deputies elected by the province of Barcelona during the period of liberal parliamentarianism (1834–54). The date and place of birth, profession, parliamentary experience and political militancy are examined, as is the development of cursus honorum, the ladder of political career advancement, based on the ‘course of honours/offices’ that operated in ancient Rome for men of senatorial rank and comprised a mixture of administrative and political posts. A quantitative analysis indicates a characteristic profile that is also aligned to a general European pattern. For instance, liberal professionals and public officials were significant in the professional status of the MPs. Besides, this study also considers the issues and questions which attracted the attention of the Catalan MPs and which were also willingly used by the MPs to mobilize public opinion. Furthermore, the MPs chosen by the province of Barcelona during the rise of the parliamentary system acted in an autonomous manner. Important examples of this autonomous political behaviour include the defence of a unitary position concerning industrial issues, military intervention in the province of Barcelona, and with tax policies.     

Losing the Power of Parliament? Participation of the Bundestag in the Decision-Making Process Concerning Out-of-Area Military Operations

The article analyses the role of the German Bundestag in decision making on out-of-area military operations since 1994. It is framed by the research question whether the power of the parliament has been weakened by the building of international rapid reaction forces such as the European Battle Groups or the NATO Response Force. In the first part, the position of the Bundestag in the decisions since 1994 is explained. The second part is mainly focused on the decision-making process pertaining to the 2006 EUFOR operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006, the German Battle Group was not sent to Congo due to domestic constraints. On the basis of this incident and a more general analysis, the article underlines the crucial role of the Bundestag in the decision-making process. It disputes the claim that the Bundestag is losing its power in favour of the government.     

Identification of Human Remains by DNA Analysis of the Gastrointestinal Contents of Fly Larvae

Dipterous fly larvae (maggots) are frequently collected from a corpse during a criminal investigation. Previous studies showed that DNA analysis of the gastrointestinal contents of maggots might be used to reveal the identity of a victim. However, this approach has not been used to date in legal investigations, and thus its practical usefulness is unknown. A badly burned body was discovered with its face and neck colonized by fly larvae. Given the condition of the body, identification was not possible. Short tandem repeat (STR) typing was performed using the gastrointestinal contents of maggots collected from the victim and was compared to STR profiles obtained from the alleged father. The probability of paternity was 99.685%. Thus, this comparative DNA test enabled the conclusive identification of the remains. This is the first reported case of analysis of human DNA isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of maggots used to identify a victim in a criminal case.