A Slow and Painful Death? Political Parties and Local Democracy in Two Northern Towns

This paper assesses the state of local political parties in the UK, using case study material generated via a comparative study of local democracy in Burnley and Harrogate. It considers the challenges facing local political parties arising from the transition from local government to local governance and the ‘diversification’ of mechanisms through which local residents relate to local public agencies. The paper argues that local parties have reached an advanced state of decline, reflected in the erosion of third parties and, in the case of Burnley, the rise of the British National Party. The paper concludes with proposals for reinvigorating local parties, as part of a broader agenda of reviving local democracy in the UK.     

Germany: a good model for Labour Party renewal?

The policy debate within the British Labour Party after its traumatic electoral defeat in 2010 has been marked by a concern with Germany's system of economic governance as a potential model for renewal. The desirability of emulating key aspects of its institutions of economic democracy (codetermination) has been a particular subject of debate. This article analyses the source of Germany's attraction for many would-be reformers in the Labour movement. It then examines whether emulating German codetermination is either a feasible or appropriate strategy for Labour reformers whose goal is to rebalance power between capital and labour. Codetermination is deeply embedded in a wider set of governance institutions that have been subject to substantial reform in recent years. It concludes that effective institutional borrowing from Germany would require a far broader and more radical set of economic governance reforms than Labour reformers appear to recognise.     

The Effects of Political Socialization in Event Marketing on the Youth: —The Three Little Pigs and Good Luck Charms Campaigns in Taiwan's 2012 Presidential Election

Event marketing allows a brand to target an audience by creating or enhancing an image through association with a particular event. In the political arena, a party is also a brand, and a campaign can be considered a series of event marketing activities. This study explores if the two major event marketing activities of the 2012 Taiwan presidential election campaign, Three Little Pigs and Good Luck Charms, might have impacted on young voters’ preference for the respective parties and their perception of the parties’ images via political socialization. An online survey was applied with a random sample of 815 drawn from InsightXplorer’s Cyber Panel database. The results demonstrated the significant effects of political socialization by media, family, and peers in that when people encountered the campaign events more often in the media and had more discussions with their families and peers, they were more likely to have a positive attitude towards the party and perceive the party image positively. Additionally, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters and non-Kuomintang (KMT) supporters were more likely to perceive Three Little Pigs as positive for the DPP, while KMT supporters and non-DPP supporters tended to believe that Good Luck Charms had positive impacts for KMT.     

Transnational Islamist Networks: Western Fighters in Afghanistan,Somalia and Syria

Abstract

Western Muslims have joined jihadi groups in Afghanistan/Pakistan, Somalia and Syria to defend Islam from its perceived enemies. Transnational Islamist networks have played a pivotal role in bringing them to conflict zones by fulfilling three functions: radicalisation through mosques, radical preachers, and the Internet; recruitment which can be conducted either physically or digitally; and identity formation that provides the radicalised recruits with a larger cause to fight for as members of an imagined global community. Transnational Islamist networks are multifunctional entities on the rise.     

A Counterterrorism Strategy for the Obama Administration

This article assesses the scope and nature of the current terrorist threat to the United States and suggests a strategy to counter it. Al-Qaeda continues to pose the most serious terrorist threat to the U.S. today. If the September 11, 2001 attacks have taught us anything, it is that al-Qaeda is most dangerous when it has a sanctuary or safe haven from which to plan and plot attacks. Al-Qaeda has acquired such a sanctuary in Pakistan's Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and its North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and surrounding environs. Accordingly, the highest priority for the new American presidential administration must be to refocus our—and our allies'—attention on Afghanistan and Pakistan, where al-Qaeda began to collapse after 2001, but has now re-grouped. This will entail understanding that al-Qaeda and its local militant jihadi allies cannot be defeated by military means alone. Success will require a dual strategy of systematically destroying and weakening enemy capabilities—that is, continuing to kill and capture al-Qaeda commanders and operatives—along with breaking the cycle of terrorist recruitment among radicalized “bunches of guys” as well as more effectively countering al-Qaeda's effective information operations. The U.S. thus requires a strategy that harnesses the overwhelming kinetic force of the American military as part of a comprehensive vision to transform other, non-kinetic instruments of national power in order to deal more effectively with irregular and unconventional threats. This article first discusses the scope and details of the terrorist threat today and then proposes a counterterrorism strategy for the new presidential administration. It focuses first on creating a micro approach to address the deteriorating situation in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It then considers the requirements of a broader macro strategy to counter terrorism and insurgency.     

是战略继承还是策略调整?——日本民主党政府东北亚安全政策述评

"战略是一个国家或政府对全局性、高层次的重大问题的筹划与指导"。[1]而政策则是"国家或政党为实现一定历史时期的路线而制定的行动准则。"[2]日本民主党上台执政后,面对东北亚地区不断变化的新的地区安全环境,对于一个没有执政经验的新政党来说,其采取的各项政策在战略层面上只能是原自民党政府的继承和延续,不会因新政党上台执政而发生战略性"急变"。2011年以后,东北亚地区形势因朝鲜半岛局势、中日关系摩擦加深以及日俄在解决领土问题上的新纠纷等等,而增加了不确定性,使民主党政府的东北亚安全政策面临着新难题和新挑战,也逼迫其在安全政策上作出新调整。但这些调整仅仅是根据新形势变化作出的政策对应,多属于"策略"层面。野田首相其人、性格及处事方式的圆滑,为日本走出东北亚地区安全"困局"多少会增加一些新变量。     

Fighting for the rule of law: civil resistance and the lawyers' movement in Pakistan

Pakistan, sometimes referred to as ‘the most dangerous place on earth’, is not typically thought of as a place where popular nonviolent resistance could take root, much less succeed. Citizen apathy, poor governance, and fear of regime repression and terrorist violence are barriers to effective civic activism inside Pakistan. Yet, over the past two years, Pakistan's authoritarian ruler was ousted and its independent judiciary restored following a massive grassroots campaign led by lawyers. The ‘men in black’, whose insistence on the rule of law and embrace of nonviolent struggle captured the hearts and minds of millions of Pakistanis, helped transform the country's political landscape in unexpected ways. The successes tallied by this nonviolent movement, this article will argue, can be attributed to the large-scale non-cooperation and civil disobedience that pressured two successive Pakistani regimes – one authoritarian and one democratic – to yield to its demands. Unity and mass participation, nonviolent discipline, and the creative use of nonviolent tactics were three key ingredients of success. While instability and Islamist extremism continue to plague Pakistan, the lawyers' movement highlights the steadily growing strength of Pakistani civil society have a potential to influence democratic change in the country.     

Democratization and the politicization of religious civil society in Turkey

In this article, we explain how the political opportunity structure characterized by official secularism and state regulation of religion has shaped the politicization of religiously oriented civil society in Turkey. The ban on religious political parties and strict state control over religious institutions create constraints for the expression of religious interests. However, due to changes in laws regulating the civil society sector and rule by a religiously sympathetic political party, religious groups use associations and foundations to express their interests. We observe that, in this strictly controlled opportunity structure, religiously oriented Muslims have framed their religious interests in the political realm parallel to those of the dominant political party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Through a study of non-governmental organizations we document the rhetoric religious groups use to frame their position on several key issues: religious freedom for the majority religious group, methods of resolving issues related to minority populations, and the Ottoman heritage of charitable service.     

Islamist moderation in perspective: comparative analysis of the moderation of Islamist and Western communist parties

What forms do Islamist moderation take, and which factors underlie each form of moderation? Although a prevalent question in recent years, less is known about the causes and forms of Islamist moderation in a systematic fashion. By building on the findings of Communist moderation literature, we introduce a two-stage framework to explain variation in Islamist party moderation over time and across space: tactical vs. ideological moderation. Tactical moderation refers to the kind of moderation where radical parties make a decision on whether to accept electoral democracy as a means to achieve ideological goals without compromising their platforms. Structural factors such as political liberalization, international factors and state repression are causes of tactical moderation. Ideological moderation pertains to shifts in a platform from a radical niche to more moderate lines to respond to societal changes (economic liberalization, economic growth, electoral loss and changing voter preferences) to gain greater popular support. Empirically, we analyse the Italian Communist Party and the Party for Justice and Development in Morocco in a comparative perspective. In providing evidence through structured comparisons and field interviews, we hope to advance a more universal, generalizable theory of radical party moderation.     

ISO9000族标准在推进马克思主义大众化过程中的运用

在推进马克思主义大众化过程中引入ISO9000族标准,是深入推进马克思主义大众化的最新探索.通过对ISO9000族标准运用大众化的可行性、作用以及运用原则的分析,并把推进大众化的原则、方法和理论与ISO9000族标;位的原则、方法和理论有机结合起来,坚持科学的运用原则,从而为当代进一步推进马克思主义大众化工作提供崭新的思路