Go West: Georgia's European identity and its role in domestic politics and foreign policy objectives

This article sheds light on the Euro-Atlantic discourse in Georgia by situating it in a wider frame. It provides an analysis of its Euro-Atlantic orientation by presenting it as a continuation of past efforts to involve European powers in Georgian affairs and highlights changing trends in this aspect of contemporary foreign policy. Far from determining whether or not the Georgians are European, the different arguments that have been used to support Georgian “Europeanness” are evaluated to assess its role in the national identity construction process. Focusing primarily on the United National Movement government led by Mikheil Saakashvili, we demonstrate how the Euro-Atlantic discourse has been employed domestically by the political elite as a legitimacy management strategy and explore its function in seeking Western patronage, a key foreign policy goal.     

Commemorating Chile's Coup: The Dynamics of Collective Behavior

This article examines the dynamics of collective behavior in Santiago, Chile every September 11, the date of the 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power. It uses a multiple‐method strategy that includes participant observation, personal interviews, and content analysis of three major newspapers during the period 2003–8. The theoretical approach emphasizes time and space coordinates of specified social actors, sociocultural emergence, a limited range of dominant emotions, and dramaturgy to describe the complexity of ritualized commemorations. It shows that incidents occurring on this date are not primarily caused by the actions of social movement organizations. Moreover, the dichotomy of “day and night” used to understand the peaceful and violent commemorations is an oversimplification of a complex network of events, actors, and scenarios that has the effect of denying any legitimacy to actions that fall outside the state‐approved practices.     

Aspectos políticos de la dependencia financiera en los municipios mexicanos1

Specialized literature has analyzed the impact of changes to fiscal institutions such as The National System of Fiscal Coordination (1980) and the constitutional reforms of article 115 (1983 and 1999) on the degree of financial dependence of local (municipal) governments and the governmental functioning. Political environment as well, affects to an important extent such functioning. Indeed, previous studies in the field of political economy point to the effects of political environment and fiscal institutions -such as public spending and debt- on national and sub-national governments. Based on four variables -political affiliation of the mayor, political affiliation of the governor, composition of local congresses and celebration of local elections-, the authors build indicators of “political confluence” at the municipal level. They study the effect that the degree of political unification at the municipal level has on the financial dependence with respect to the State government, and also to the local Congress. In their analysis, the authors also consider the political affiliation of the mayor and the local electoral cycle. Through its analytical focus and main empirical findings, this article contributes to broadening the scope of empirical studies of municipal financial dependence. Simultaneously, it adds to existing literature in the field of political economy that accounts for public finances at the sub-national level     

Presupuesto público sin participación ciudadana. La necesidad de un cambio institucional en México para la consolidación democrática

Over the last thirty years, Mexico has undergone an important consolidation of its institutional framework, focused primarily on the electoral and political system. This process of political change was accompanied by a significant transformation and liberalization of the financial and economic system. Mexico’s current situation proves that both processes do not yield satisfactory results when social problems are left unattended. In fact, the transition from a noncompetitive political system to a more democratic one, has not guaranteed better living conditions for most of the population, in part because there is practically no participation in public life on behalf of most of the citizenry. This article reflects on the fundamental importance of citizens’ participation in democracy. Particular attention is paid to public participative budgets as factors which may contribute to democracy’s consolidation and quality, but which have had negligible impacts thus far as is illustrated by public participative budgets initiatives that have been held in Mexico City.     

A Hybrid Peace through Locally Owned and Externally Financed ssr–ddr in Rwanda?

This article aims to critically examine Rwanda's security sector reform and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (ssr–ddr) process through a theoretical framework outlining four different models of peace processes in order to identify the sort of peace that can emerge from Rwanda's ssr–ddr approach. The author analyses how the Rwandan government has managed to keep the process ‘locally’ owned, while largely financed by external actors, despite strong criticism of its apparent lack of democratisation. The ‘genocide credit’, the Rwandan government's preference for national, rather than international solutions and its recent troop contribution to peacebuilding operations in the region are identified as the main reasons for this development. The paper argues that the peace emanating from the ssr–ddr process may be considered a hybrid form of state formation and state building, because of the local agency's preference for security and stability while simultaneously enjoying financial and technocratic support for its ‘liberal’ peacebuilding actions in the region.     

Territorial dispossession: dynamics of capitalist expansion in rural territories in South America

The rural territories of the Agrarian South have been occupying a central role as epicentres for the recent dynamics of capitalist expansion. Over the last years this has led to an increase in the process of control and extraction of natural common goods by different mechanisms such as agribusiness, mining-energetic projects, mega-infrastructure building, cultural dispossession and so on. Taking the territory as the central analytical approach that involves different dimensions and scales, we analyse the recent transformations in several rural sceneries from South America where various forms of dispossession of natural goods have been presented. With this perspective, we hope to contribute to the analysis and understanding of the agrarian transformations in the Agrarian South.     

Book reviews

Foreign Policy Making in Developing States: a comparative approach. Edited by Christopher Clapham, Farnborough (UK): Saxon House. 1978. 148 pp. £8.50.

Tariff Protection and Growth in Developing Countries. Mona Fouad Attia, Rotterdam: Rotterdam University Press. 1976. 251 pp.

Exports of Manufactures from Developing Countries. A H M Mahfuzur Rahman, Rotterdam: Centre for Development Planning, Rotterdam University Press. 1973. 140 pp.

Policy Reform in Developing Countries. Bela Balassa, Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1977. 176 pp. £9.00. £5.95 pb.

Nuclear Proliferation and the Near‐Nuclear Countries. Edited by Onkar Marwah & Ann Schultz, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger. 1975. 350 pp £11.60. (Distributed in UK by John Wiley)

Sociology and Development. Edited by E de Kadt and G Williams, London: Tavistock Publications Ltd. 1974. (Reprinted 1976). 374 pp. £4.25.

An Introduction to the Sociology of Rural Development. Norman Long, London: Methuen &Co Ltd. 1977. 221 pp. £3.25 pb.

Growing out of Poverty. Elizabeth Stamp, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1977. 165 pp. £4.25.

The United Nations System: coordinating its economic and social work. Martin Hill, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 252 pp. £13.50.

The United Nations in Bangladesh. Thomas W Oliver, Princeton University Press. 1978. 231 pp. US$20.

International Money: issues and analysis. Andrew Crockett, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1978. 250 pp. £3.95 pb.

The Failure of World Monetary Reform 1971–74. John Williamson, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1977. 221 pp. £3.25.

The International Monetary Tangle: myths and realities. Guillaume Guindey, Oxford: Blackwells. 1977. 121 pp. £7.85.

Research and Development Abroad by US Multinationals. Robert Ronstadt, New York: Praeger. 1977. 150 pp. £11.25.

International Migration and Dependence. Stephen Adler, Farnborough (UK): Saxon House. 1977. 235 pp. £8.50.

The Seventh Enemy: the human factor in the global crisis. Ronald Higgins, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1978. 303 pp. £5.95.

The Disintegrating West. Mary Kaldor, London: Allen Lane‐Penguin Books Ltd. 1978. 219 pp. £5.50.

The Changing Face of the Third World: regional and national studies. Edited by Josef Nyilas, Budapest: Department of World Economy, Karl Marx University of Economic. Sciences. 1978. 431 pp.

Interdependent Development. Harold Brookfield, London: Methuen. 1977. 233 pp. £3.30.

Oil Companies in the International System. Louis Turner, London: George Allen &Unwin. 1978. 222 pp. £8.50.

Venezuela's Oil. Romullo Betancourt, London: George Allen & Unwin. 1978. 275 pp. £3.95.

Namibia Old and New. Gerhard Tötemeyer, London: C Hurst & Company Ltd. 1978. 257 pp. £9.50.

Buying Time in South Africa. CIS Anti‐Report No. 21, London: Counter Information Services. 1978. 56 pp. £0.95 pb.

Revolutionary Pressures in Africa. Claude Ake, London: Zed Press Ltd. 1978. 109 pp. £6.50.

The Guerilla Reader: a historical anthology. Edited by Walter Laqueur, London: Wildwood House. 1978. 246 pp. £5.95.

Negotiating Third World Mineral Agreements: promises as prologue. David N Smith and Louis T Wells Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company. 1975. 266 pp. £10.80. (Distributed in the UK by John Wiley)

Economic Growth and Distribution in China. Nicholas R Lardy, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 244 pp. £12.

The Peasant and the Raj: studies in agrarian society and peasant rebellion in colonial India. Eric Stokes, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 308 pp. £12.50.

Women of the World: illusion and reality. Urmila Phadnis and Indira Malani, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. 1978. 283 pp.

Message from the Village. Perdita Huston, New York: Epoch B Foundation. 1978. 120 pp. US $3.95.

Living Black. Kevin Gilbert, London: Allen Lane ‐ the Penguin Press. 1977. 305 pp. £7.00.

The Economics of the Arab World. Yusif A Sayigh, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 726 pp. £35.

The Determinants of Arab Economic Development. Yusif A Sayigh, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 181 pp. £12.95.

The Arabs’ New Frontier. Robert Stephens, London: Temple Smith (second revised edition). 1976. 279 pp. £5.50.

Emergency in Perspective; reprieve and challenge. Sachchidanand Sinha, London: Books from India Ltd. 1977. 122 pp. £3.75.

Inside India Today. Dilip Hiro, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1976. (reprinted 1978) 293 pp. £3.95 pb.

The Essential JP: the philosophy and prison diary of Jayaprakash Narayan. Edited by Satish Kumar, Dorchester (UK): Prism Press. 1978. 153 pp. £4.95.

Women of Vietnam. Arlene Eisen Bergman, San Francisco: People's Press. 1975 (revised edition). 255 pp. £2.95.. (Distributed in the UK by Zed Press)

Land and Labour in Latin America. Edited by Kenneth Duncan and Ian Rutledge with the collaboration of Colin Harding Cambridge Latin American Studies, Cambridge University Press. 1977. 535 pp. £17.50.

Secession: the legitimacy of self‐determination. Lee C Buchheit, New Haven: Yale University Press. 1978. 260 pp. £12.60.     

Effect of Temperature on Bone Tissue: Histological Changes

The analysis of burned human remains has been of great interest among forensic anthropologists largely due to the difficulty that their recovery, classification, reconstruction, and identification present. The main purpose of this analysis is to present histological methodology for the interpretation of bones altered by thermal processes. We include analyses of the microscopic changes among bones exposed to different temperatures, with the goal of establishing categories of histological morphology in relation to fire temperature. Samples of bone (ilium) were exposed systematically to controlled temperatures. Analysis of the resulting histological changes has allowed the formation of a clear four‐stage classification of the alterations observed. This classification should prove useful in assessing bone changes in relation to temperature of exposure, particularly in cases where this temperature was previously not known.     

Single‐Image Rectification Technique in Forensic Science

Many researchers have been working in Spain to document the communal graves of those assassinated during the Spanish Civil War. This article shows the results obtained with two low‐cost photogrammetric techniques for the basic documentation of forensic studies. These low‐cost techniques are based on single‐image rectification and the correction of the original photo displacement due to the projection and perspective distortions introduced by the lens of the camera. The capability of image rectification is tested in an excavation in the village of Loma de Montija (Burgos, Spain). The results of both techniques are compared with the more accurate data obtained from a laser scanner system RIEGL LMS‐Z390i to evaluate the error in the lengths. The first technique uses a camera situated on a triangle‐shaped pole at a height of 5 m and the second positions the camera over the grave using a linearly actuated device. The first technique shows measurement errors less than 6%, whereas the second shows greater errors (between 8% and 14%) owing to the positioning of the carbon‐fiber cross on an uneven surface.