Party Politics,Political Competition and Coming to Terms with the Past in Post-Communist Hungary

This article considers processes involved in coming to terms with the past in the early years of post-communist Hungary. It addresses the impacts of ‘soft’ late socialism, ‘negotiated’ post-socialist transition, and the intense inter-party and intra-party competition in which Hungary’s first democratically elected government operated. It concludes that claims that Hungary failed to confront the past in the early 1990s miss the mark. The past was confronted openly and aggressively by political actors, but the public will, as reflected in parliamentary legislation, was in favour of measures that resonated with ‘soft’ late socialism and a smooth post-socialist transition rather than political retribution.     

Obituaries: Lady Delia Pilcher

The New York-born journalist and travel writer Francis Nichols (1879-1904) is best known for his travels through early 20^th-century China. However, his attempt in 1903-4 to travel through Tibet to Lhasa ahead of the Younghusband Mission, and thus to become the first westerner to reach the city, has been forgotten, partly on account of his death in the field and the loss of his diary. From new research in recently-catalogued documents and letters in the archives of the American Geographical Society (AGS), the author has compiled an account of Nichols’ mission to Lhasa, including the support he received from US backers, including the AGS, his travels in China, Tibet and India, and his relations with Younghusband and the British. Although Nichols was unable to reach Lhasa, the author observes that he should be credited as the first American to travel from India into the Chumbi valley in southern Tibet and across the Tibetan plateau from Phari to the town of Gyantse, 120 miles south-west of Lhasa.     

‘Venona’: the British dimension

‘Venona’ remains the greatest secret of the Cold War yet to be declassified, and offers the pieces of a jigsaw that, when assembled and interpreted, reveals the identities of dozens of Soviet agents who participated in GRU and NKVD networks across the globe between 1940 and 1948. Among them, operating in London, were Professor J.B.S Haldane, codenamed ‘Intelligentsia’, and Lord Swaythling's son, the Honourable Ivor Montagu, appropriately codenamed ‘Nobility’. Contained in the sometimes partially decrypted texts are clues to hundreds of other, as yet unexposed, spies, active in Australia, Mexico, Sweden, the United States, Britain, and numerous other countries. Betrayed by William Wiesband and Kim Philby, the ‘Venona’ project failed to find the traitor known as ‘Baron’ inside the wartime GCHQ, but was responsible for the arrest of Klaus Fuchs, confirming the guilt of Alger Hiss, Donald Maclean and the Rosenbergs, supporting the allegations of Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, and sparking off molehunts on three continents. ‘Venona’ sheds important new light on the assassination of Trotsky, Soviet penetration of the Manhattan project at Los Alamos and Berkeley, and reveals high-level espionage in the White House, OSS, the State Department and virtually every government department in Washington DC.     

New Bourgeoisies?

Indonesia: The Rise of Capital. By Richard Robison. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986. Pp.425. £11.95. ISBN 0 04 909024 0.

Government and Private Sector in Contemporary Mexico. Edited by Sylvia Maxfield and Ricardo Anzaldúa Montoya. San Diego: Center for US‐Mexican Studies, University of California, Monograph Series 20, 1987. Pp.148. $12.50.

The African Bourgeoisie: Capitalist Development in Nigeria, Kenya, and the Ivory Coast. Edited by Paul M. Lubeck. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.414. £24.95. ISBN 0 931477 86 7.

Entrepreneurship, Equity and Economic Development. By E. Wayne Nafziger. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.xxiv + 308. £44.95. ISBN 0 89232 711 1.     

MANAGING THE RISE OF CHINA(REVIEW ARTICLE)

A survey of a number of books about how the overall international system will need to be modified so as to cope with the rise of China. Clearly the single most important relationship will be that between the US and China. The present structure of that bilateral relationship is inadequate for future needs.     

An MP's role in the internet Era – The impact of e-newsletters

The role of MPs changes over time. Commentators have identified five separate roles that an MP may carry out for which communication with constituents may be a key factor in determining the success of an MP. One of the latest, and currently underdeveloped, forms of direct political communication to constituents is e-newsletters from MPs. This article addresses how MPs are using their e-newsletter to help fulfil each of their parliamentary roles. A content analysis of the e-newsletters of seven MPs sent out regularly over a 1-year period from April 2003 to March 2004 was conducted. The data found that e-newsletters best helped fulfil both the political and non-political aspects of the constituency role. However, the article concludes that e-newsletter communication is primarily one-way, but that if it was two-way it might help MPs in all of their roles.     

Microblogging,Constituency Service and Impression Management: UK MPs and the Use of Twitter

Twitter, a microblogging site which allows users to deliver statements, thoughts and links in 140 characters to followers as well as a wider Internet audience, is the latest online communications technology adopted by MPs. Assessing the use by early adopters, this article considers which MPs are most likely to use Twitter (for example, tweeting), and how. Content analysis of MPs' Twitter feeds was conducted, and personal and political characteristics identified which may influence use. The data suggested that of the six characteristics tested, gender, party and seniority had most impact on adoption. Applying Jones and Pittman's 1982 typology, there is clear evidence that MPs use Twitter as a tool of impression management. Constituency service is a secondary function of the use of Twitter by MPs. Where MPs use Twitter as part of their constituency role it is to promote their local activity. This article notes that a small group of MPs use Twitter as a regular communication channel, but most are only occasionally dipping their toe into the microbloggersphere.