No more bullets for ETA: the loss of internal support as a key factor in the end of the Basque group’s campaign

The Basque separatist organisation ETA laid down its arms in 2011 after 40 years of an armed campaign for independence. It was not a consequence of political negotiations. The Basque group did not achieve its goals. Yet, it unilaterally decided to end its armed activity forever. This article analyses why and how ETA ended its armed campaign. It clarifies the events from the collapse of the last peace process in June 2007 to the announcement of the definitive end of ETA’s campaign in October 2011. It identifies the causal factors that led the Basque group towards its end. This article contends that the end of ETA’s campaign is a case of transformation triggered by its constituency’s withdrawal of support for the armed struggle. The leadership and social base of the political movement to which ETA belongs concluded that political violence was not effective anymore and, furthermore, was damaging for the Basque pro-independence movement. After an internal struggle, in which the faction advocating for exclusively political means prevailed, ETA was driven towards a unilateral abandonment of armed struggle.     

Ethnic diversity and development in Kenya: limitations of ethnicity as a category of analysis

This paper challenges the relevance of ethnic diversity in explaining the development impasse in Africa, using Kenya as a case study and arguing that the neopatrimonial and ethnic diversity theses are contradictory as explanatory variables of Africa's development crisis. The former speaks to homogeneity while the latter implies heterogeneity in the public policy process. This paper singles out the ethnic diversity thesis as the weaker of the two, arguing that ethnic groups lack a collective ethnic agenda that can be flagged as consequential for the political economy of the polity. Ethnic group intervention in the political arena is not determined by innate ethnic characteristics: it is due to the tendency for certain actors in the body politic to exploit institutional failure. With proper institutions, the assumed burden of ethnicity in African development would naturally evaporate. Focusing on supposedly ethnic problems is the wrong target.     

Changing Images in Books for Young People

Literature for young people has changed greatly since Severzteeiztlz Suinrner and Fifreerz were published. Society has changed greatly, too, in the last few decades. Many modern books reflect society's involvement with drugs, sex, alcohol, and violence. Teenagers will read a great variety of stories and view different images of themselves and their times.     

Creating an Extrafamilial Living Environment

Abstract

As human actors, the staff members and children who inhabit a residential center do not just react to their physical and social environment. In many ways they can be said to enact or create it.     

Guidelines in Child and Youth Care Family Work

SUMMARY

There are many paths that can be taken with the families we encounter in our work. It is this richness in options that can make the child and youth care approach so powerful. However, amongst each potential path there are a number of common guideposts that serve as markers for our interactions with families. These guiding principles are described through the use of examples from a family in a program for teens who are parenting.     

Corruption and identity politics in divided societies

Corruption is a major problem for populations in various parts of the world. This article argues that to understand the problems and dynamics of corruption, we need to understand how discourses and practices of corruption (and anti-corruption efforts) are intertwined with the construction and contestations of identity. Identity politics is a salient feature in peaceful political struggles, as well as in contemporary armed conflicts, which are often characterised by the politicisation of collective identity (ethnic, national, religious) for the violent pursuit of power. The article outlines and discusses four ways in which identity politics and corruption intersect. First, it points to the often blurred lines between private and collective benefit from corruption, revealing the implications of group identity for how corruption is conceptualised. Second, it shows how corruption may exacerbate grievances along identity lines. Third, it highlights how corruption can be used strategically in identity-based conflicts. Finally, it explores how corruption may encourage cross-ethnic solidarity and mobilisation that defy conflict divides.     

论新时期“无直接利益冲突”矛盾预警与应急机制

“无直接利益冲突”是众多参与者与事件本身无关,只是表达、发泄一种情绪的社会冲突。其通常表现是起哄、扎堆、看热闹,严重的可引发骚乱。社会矛盾预警应急机制可有效预防和化解“无直接利益冲突”。新时期“无直接利益冲突”呈现出的新情况、新趋势、新动向等特征,迫需构建这种机制。构建这种机制,需夯实“地直接利益冲突”预警应急的基础,建设科学、高效的矛盾预警与应急系统。     

“于正剧现象”研究

"于正剧现象"的特征是"叫座不叫好"。这种类型的电视剧违背艺术真实的美学原则,文本中充满大量的虚假情节、虚假人物、虚假环境、虚假道具。既不符合直观真实或超现实真实,又不符合主观真实,更难以达到客观真实的美学高度,是一种典型的高碳艺术。大力开发符合艺术真实,特别是实现客观真实的低碳艺术,这是中国电视剧艺术发展的正确方向。     

论连结点的孤立与矫正

连结点的孤立表现为冲突规范的指引在空间和时间两个维度与案件整体缺乏联系,这是双边法律选择方法难以避免的现象。随着法律选择价值目标的演变,应允许法官在特殊案件中摆脱孤立连结点的指引,裁量适用与案件具有更加密切联系的法律。对连结点的矫正应坚持规则导向,为双边法律选择注入有限的灵活性。     

一致与冲突：政府决策的民主化与科学化

随着中国政治体制改革的不断深入推进，理论界关于政府决策民主化与科学化的研究日益升温。对于决策民主化和科学化二者之间的关系，理论界长期以来的主流观点是二者具有正相关性或一致性，但实际上二者还存在着负相关性或冲突性。全面把握二者的关系，尤其是在政府决策实践中正确处理好其负相关性或冲突性，有助于进一步提升政府决策的能力和水平，推进政府体制改革。