Restructuring Local Government in Hampshire: A Case of Mistaken Community Identity?

This article examines the impact of the idea of community identity upon the Local Government Review in England. It considers the extent to which the notion of community identity was built into the Local Government Review nationally and, moreover, locally in Hampshire, and the extent to which it shaped the outcomes of the Local Government Review. Three conceptions of community identity are examined - affective, effective and deliberative community identity - and their interplay assessed in shaping the process of restructuring local government. The article argues that the issue of community identity figured prominently in the early stages of the Local Government Review, but faded away as it got caught up with the political machinations of central government, local authorities and political parties.     

The Influence of “Social Viewing” on Televised Debate Viewers’ Political Judgment

Social media could serve as an easy and fast window to the climate of public opinion. In the current study, we examined the influence of perceived opinion climate revealed via Twitter postings in shaping televised debate viewers’ candidate evaluation. We conducted two Web-based experiments in the high- and low-stimulus elections: (a) the 2012 Korean presidential election and (b) the 2014 Seoul mayoral election. Instead of using contrived stimulus materials, we were able to examine the influence of exposure to Twitter postings in voters’ judgment of candidate performance in real time. Using a custom-designed Web application, participants evaluated the candidates as debate-related Twitter postings were being fed in real time during each televised debate. Our results suggest that exposure to Twitter postings has induced significant bandwagon effects. Bandwagon effects were pervasive even among partisans and the knowledgeable. Our findings show that more policy efforts ought to be made to strengthen the informative role of social viewing.     

A Clash of Cultures? The UNESCO Diversity Convention and International Trade Law

The adoption, on 20 October 2005, of the Convention on the Protectionand Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (DiversityConvention) has returned the limelight to the suitability ofWorld Trade Organization (WTO) rules for cultural products.This article shows that the Diversity Convention, while an importantstep towards the recognition of cultural diversity as an internationallyrecognized public choice of states, does not affect the rightsand obligations of WTO Members as such. The original purposeof the Convention was to create a safe haven for cultural policiesand protect them from WTO disciplines. However, the centraloperative provision for bringing about the desired shieldingeffect for domestic policies safeguarding national culturalindustries against foreign competition, its now-article 20,while making a general claim to non-subordination in paragraph1, modifies this broad statement in paragraph 2 so as to onlyapply to treaties concluded at the same time or later. The articleexplores how to avoid or minimize an undesirable incongruencebetween liberal trade rules and the right of states to protectshelf-space for domestically produced cultural products.     

Reviews

Gradualist choice with question marks: an international panel of economists on the Hungarian transition

Istvan P. Szekely & David M. G. Newbery (eds), Hungary: An Economy in Transition. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press 1993.

Joseph Held, ed., Democracy and Right‐Wing Politics in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, vi + 232 pp., $40.50.

Stephen K. Batalden ed., Seeking God: The Recovery of Religious Identity in Orthodox Russia, Ukraine and Georgia. DeKalb, IL, Northern Illinois University Press, 1993, ix + 299 pp., $32.00.

K. Kaariainen, Atheism and Perestroika. Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1993, 189 pp., Finmarks 140.00.

Börje Ljunggren ed., The Challenge of Reform in Indochina. Boston, MA: Harvard Studies in International Development, Harvard University Press, 1993.

Valery Boldin, Ten Years that Shook the World. The Gorbachev Era as Witnessed by his Chief of Staff. London: Harper Collins, 1994, viii + 310 pp., £10.99, $25.00.     

Critical Commentary: The Assumptions of Democracy

The United States' project of democratisation in the Arab and Muslim world relies upon three core assumptions, revealed in Andrew S Natsios's account: the moderating power of democracy, a relationship between the nature of government and the condition of fear, and the tenacity of the US government in promoting democratic values in the region. Using the account of Iraq in Ambassador Edward Chaplin's article, this commentary seeks to show how each of these assumptions is contestable, and the likely consequences for the politics of the region if they do not conform to US expectations.