Muslims,South Asians and the British mainstream: A national identity crisis?

Current popular opinion assumes that Muslims and South Asians in Britain develop anti-mainstream identities because they live in impoverished and segregated ghettos, participate in non-mainstream religions, and politically organise via ethnically and religiously motivated networks. This article uses survey data from the 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey to challenge each of those points. First, it shows that Muslims and South Asians are almost as likely as whites to identify themselves as British. Second, it argues that discrimination is more important than simple socio-economic difficulties for British identification. In addition, it claims that despite living in ethnically segregated neighbourhoods and retaining ethnic and religious social and political networks, Muslims and South Asians have actively built integrated networks, have trust in mainstream political institutions, and are committed to being a part of the larger British community.     

Ministerial Importance and Survival in Government: Tough at the Top?

The Treaty of Lisbon introduces an early warning mechanism (EWM) which empowers national parliaments to intervene directly at the EU level; they may now raise objections to – and even play a role in blocking – EU legislation. The EWM represents a new model of parliamentary involvement in international relations: national parliaments now constitute a virtual third chamber for the EU. Though they do not meet together in the same physical space, national parliaments collectively form a body that can, at least to some degree, perform three key parliamentary functions – legislation, representation, and deliberation. First, it gives national parliaments the power to influence legislative outcomes at the EU level. Second, it provides a new channel of representation linking the citizen with the EU. Third, it creates a new forum for debating the substantive merits of proposed EU legislation, particularly regarding its compliance with the principle of subsidiarity.     

The recovery of natural law: Hochstrasser's history of morality

This book is discussed in the context of the ongoing recovery of a distinctively 'modern' or post-scholastic form of natural law thought. Hochstrasser's contribution to this recovery is to stress the linguistic-conventionalist character of post-metaphysical natural law in the German early Enlightenment. On this basis, he is able to show how Samuel Pufendorf and his followers largely escape the charges of moral arbitrariness and political tyranny levelled at them by such metaphysical rivals as Leibniz. The article concludes by briefly indicating one of the major alternatives to Hochstrasser's interpretation, giving a sense of the ongoing debate surrounding the construction of political legitimacy in post-scholastic natural law.     

‘Marching from all governorates’: labour lacunae in Mubarak’s Egypt

Abstract

Starting in 1991, Egypt undertook ‘structural adjustment’ reforms at the behest of international financial institutions and the country’s foreign donors. These reforms have often been included in a larger discussion of economic reforms and the withdrawal of the state from the Egyptian market. While certainly market-based, these reforms were interpreted and implemented in a uniquely Egyptian context and moved forward not through a market logic but with a specific understanding of political feasibility. Despite these local peculiarities, Egypt experienced a backlash familiar to researchers of structural adjustment internationally. How did Egypt’s structural adjustment and other ‘liberalizing’ reforms produce spatialized and sectoral backlash and drive workers from quiescence to militancy? Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted in 2011–2013, this paper argues that the choices made by the Egyptian regime from 1991 to 2010 generated ‘labour lacunae’ – spaces in the political-economic structure where methods of interest aggregation were replaced by coercion or neglect – allowing militancy to flourish. I explore how labour entrepreneurs exploited these ‘lacunae’ to redefine ‘local’ protest in the run-up to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.     

Setting the Post War Australian Policy Agenda – Causes and Content

What are the origins of policy agendas and what determines agenda setting? The one robust theory in the literature associates different agendas with different moments in the evolution of the broader party system namely mass, catch‐all and most recently cartel patterns. This article explores Australian evidence for this thesis. It also argues the cartel moment has recently mutated. Agenda setting is now circumscribed by a mismatch between the needs of policy making and the political incentive structure. The media have become primary tissue connecting political elites to their publics. But this traps the system in short term, primarily populist stances. Systemic capacities to mediate agenda setting have thus been corrupted.     

Latin America's Left Turns: beyond good and bad

In rapid succession leftwing parties have been elected to government in some of the most important countries in the Latin American region. I challenge the view that there are two distinct variants of the left—one populist, the other social democratic—and argue that variation on the left reflects the diverse conditions under which these forces emerge and evolve. I outline common features shared by the left in Latin America; suggest how the concept of populism and analysis of social movements can help explain this variation; and show how the left's commitment to egalitarianism, balancing markets, and, in some cases, its appeals to the constituent power of the people enabled it to benefit from disillusionment with the results of neoliberalism, the poor performance of democratic governments in Latin America, and the evolving international context.     

Regulating the Media: Some Neglected Freedom of Expression Issues in the United Kingdom's Counter-Terrorism Strategy

ABSTRACT

In the wake of the first ever Al Qaeda-inspired bombings in Britain in July 2005, there has been much discussion about the appropriate form(s) of counter-terrorism response. This article focuses on one aspect of the “war on terror” usually afforded less prominence than other counter-terrorist measures; namely a range of existing and proposed constraints on media freedom and the constitutional/human rights issues provoked. The United Kingdom is the focus because terrorism laws intended for the ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland have been replaced by legislation in 2000 and 2001 claimed to reflect the changed nature of terrorism and that arguably has serious implications for freedom of expression. Measures that would impact adversely on speech are being debated in Parliament presently, measures that go considerably further than the previous bans on the direct broadcasting of Sinn Féin representatives and their sympathisers.     

The Yadana syndrome? Big oil and principles of corporate engagement in myanmar

In debates about economic globalisation, the case for leading corporations to engage with some of the world's most desperate development challenges is increasingly heard. However, it remains an open question whether investment should take place in extreme contexts. On the one hand, foreign capitalist involvement in extractive industries has long been seen as highly exploitative. Should such activity now be encouraged? On the other, all forms of corporate engagement with regimes that commit gross human rights violations are widely viewed as thoroughly unprincipled. Should this activity now be endorsed? The article tackles these issues by examining the controversial involvement of Western oil companies in Myanmar's Yadana gas project. It addresses two main questions. First, is that involvement itself to be welcomed? Second, from this experience, can wider lessons about global corporate citizenship be drawn? The argument is that it is not possible to reach an overall evaluation of the Yadana project. However, principles of responsible cross‐border corporate engagement can be derived from it.¹     

Administrators and professionals in local government

This article evaluates the shift to an executive and scrutiny model in local government by assessing the changes at Devon County Council. Interviews were used to evaluate support for the changes and identify the key issues and problems. Most members had little enthusiasm for the reforms, support for the changes was dependent on the loyalty of Liberal Democrat backbenchers towards the leadership and central government's legislative agenda. The analysis revealed substantial problems with the operation of the reformed structure and suggested that the changes might fail to deliver the benefits expected by central government.