Minor Parties and Independents in Times of Change: Scottish Local Elections 1974 to 2007

This article explores the electoral performance of minor party and Independent candidates in Scottish local elections from 1974 to 2007. This is a period which began with a major restructuring of local government and ended with a change in the electoral system from first-past-the-post to the single transferable vote. It encompasses a second restructuring in the 1990s, the consolidation of the Scottish National Party as an electoral force, and the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Throughout the period, while there have been ebbs and flows, Independents and minor parties have remained significant players in local electoral politics in Scotland.     

Means and Ends: A Theory Framework for Understanding Entrepreneurship in the US Arts and Culture Sector

This article provides a framework for the conceptualization of arts entrepreneurship in the US by first examining a range of perspectives on the boundaries of the “arts and culture sector” in the US and then exploring in some depth four theories of entrepreneurship and how such theories may be realized within the arts and culture sector. Theories of firm formation are considered both generally and as potentially applied to the arts and culture sector, with examples of firm formation drawn both from existing literature and the author's direct observation of entrepreneurial activity. Finally, the essay connects these theories in a means and ends framework to provide a context for understanding arts entrepreneurial activity, especially in the US arts and culture sector. The theory that emerges from the examples provided to illustrate the framework is a simple one: artists form firms or otherwise undertake entrepreneurial action toward the end of creating art sustainably and they do so by discovering or creating new connections between their means and that desirable end.     

Hungary's “anti-capitalist” far-right: Jobbik and the Hungarian Guard

The study analyzed whether the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the establishment of succeeding mono-national states was the expression of “longing” of mass proportions on the part of the nationalities within respective federal units. Using the data from two pan-Yugoslav surveys from the period preceding the dissolution, results were obtained that indicated a very limited support for this hypothesis. More specifically, results indicated that support for emancipation was rather weak, among youth in 1986 and even among the adult population in 1990, although some significant mean differences between the federal units and between major nationalities within them were evident. Specifically, opinions favoring independence were detected among Kosovo Albanians and later among Slovenians in Slovenia. In addition, findings also indicated that those with higher socioeconomic status were not more inclined toward independence. Results thus pointed more towards the idea that the dissolution was indeed instigated by a small group of “political entrepreneurs” not captured by the survey data.     

Foreign minister's budget vote address

This article examines the evolution of the responsibility to protect (R2P) norm through the institutional frameworks of the African Union and the United Nations. The investigation aligns itself with recent constructivist thinking around norm evolution and contestation which holds that diverging interpretations around norms facilitate not only norm contestation, but ultimately norm acceptance. In this case different ‘meanings-in-use’ of R2P within and across both organisations reinforce the contested nature of R2P. This becomes most apparent in the prevailing confusion around the affiliated concept of the protection of civilians, which is not effectively delineated from R2P. Nevertheless R2P is found to be widely acknowledged within both organisations.     

Development Made Sexy: how it happened and what it means

This article examines the recent trend among Northern development organisations to represent development as sexy in awareness and fundraising campaigns. The article argues that the ways in which development organisations represent the global South and development work play an important role in the construction of social power relations between people in the global North and the global South. The representation of development as sexy is compared and contrasted to other representations of development that highlight scarcity and deprivation. The article argues that, although the representation of development as sexy avoids portrayals of poor people in the global South as helpless victims, it presents an image of development in which the most important form of agency is Northern charity.     

The micro-politics of norm contestation between the OSCE and Kazakhstan: square pegs in round holes

Norm contestation by local actors has emerged in recent years as an explanation for the failure of norm diffusion. This article contributes to the literature on norm contestation by analysing how norms diffused by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pertaining to election observation and free and fair voting are re-constituted and contested by domestic actors in Kazakhstan. The study contributes to the idea of ‘constitutive localisation’ by emphasising a more fundamental level of disagreement beyond just congruence between the diffused norm and local beliefs; by demonstrating contestation can occur in the later stages in the norm diffusion cycle; by focusing on the micro-politics of contestation by local actors involved in the implementation of diffused norms; and by revealing how norm contestation is not necessarily a process of emancipatory politics, but a strategic act to serve authoritarian consolidation. Utilising a four-fold framework, the analysis illustrates how norms, while initially accepted by Kazakhstani authorities, are reconstituted through political discourse and/or practice, creating the moment of contestation. While this contestation is instrumentalised by political elites for their own advantage, it also remains an important element of agency within a normative order which they had little previous control over.     

国际法中的特别法优先原则

国际法规则的冲突是国际法不成体系的重要表现,特别法优先原则强调适用更特殊、更具体的特别法规则,是解决这种冲突的重要方法。冲突确实存在与规则属于同一事项构成了该原则适用的基本条件,而调整事项和规则所涉及的缔约方则构成确定一般法和特别法的参考因素。     

道德失范与萧纲的“放荡”文学观

放荡文学观是南朝世俗享乐文化的一种文学陈述形式,萧纲的放荡文学观展示修身和为文的二水分流之势。道德束缚的松动铸成萧纲以新变为矢的,艳丽辞藻为表征的不拘礼法的文学姿态,推动了文学审美的精细化趋向。它促使文人更多地去关注真切的生命体验,并以儒教传统诗教的叛逆面目而成为唐代文人改弦更张的基础。     

性骚扰问题及其法律规制

性骚扰是人类社会发展过程中所产生的一种社会现象,其产生有着深刻的人性基础和社会历史原因.随着社会的进步和人们生活方式的多元化、复杂化,性骚扰问题日益凸显出来.参照世界各国对性骚扰问题的法律规定,我国应在制定和修改民商法律时,正视性骚扰问题,并加以合理、有效规制.     

行政规范的司法审查

对行政规范进行司法审查是司法权制约行政权的重要方式,也是民主、法治社会的题中应有之义。我国现行的司法审查制度排除了对行政规范的审查,这不利于保护相对人的权益,亦与依法行政的宗旨相悖。故此,应将行政规范纳入司法审查的范围,并从司法审查的方式上进行完善,以期实现司法权对行政权的有效监督。