Between the Museum and the Street: Roberto Matta's Works in Chile during the Unidad Popular

This article seeks to contribute to the study of the work Roberto Matta made in Chile in the early 1970s by focusing on a series of painted arpilleras made at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and El primer gol del pueblo chileno, a mural created in collaboration with the muralist group Brigada Ramona Parra. I argue that this body of work was largely informed by the ideals of the Unidad Popular and that the artist's presence in the country might have contributed to the institutional validation of popular practices such as crafts and muralism in the local artistic scene.     

People,Territory, and Legitimacy in Democratic States

Who are the people who should govern themselves in a democracy? This is the famous boundary problem to which this article offers a new approach. Most democrats, even nationalists and cosmopolitans, delimit the demos by relying on territorial jurisdictions. However, territory is not explicit in their arguments. This article urges democrats to recognize territory's normative importance rather than overlook the role it already plays in their theories. Acknowledging territory is a risky, yet promising, strategy. Risky, because it may lead to a vicious circle: one needs well‐defined territorial borders to delimit the people, yet one needs a well‐defined people to establish legitimate territorial borders. Promising, because it forces democrats to scrutinize implicit assumptions and find new resources for dealing with the vicious circle. The article describes four possible tacks by which theorists could navigate the waters of people, territory, and legitimacy in democracies: asserting, circumventing, solving, and dissolving the circle.     

A Kinder,Gentler Democracy? The Consensus Model and Swedish Disability Politics

Arend Lijphart's seminal consensus model of democracy does not only try to explain how democracy actually works. It also purports to be a ‘kinder, gentler’ form of democracy with regard to e.g. unemployment, disability, illness and old age. So far, this conjecture has not been brought to a systematic test which is the purpose of this article. We look into the consequences for one of the areas Lijphart singles out: disability. Does consensus democracy promote a more generous policy towards disabled people than majoritarian democracy? We transfer Lijphart's theory to municipality level. In Sweden, disability care is namely the responsibility for the municipalities, which are comparatively large and independent and with the right to tax their citizens; they are like small nation‐states. There is, however, a considerable variation in disability support between them. Some give ten times as much support than others. Is it those governed according to the consensus model? Our approach helps controlling for the variation in political and cultural context and expands the number of observations. The statistical comparison of Swedish municipalities does not, however, lend any confirmation of the famous theory. Instead, there are reasons to doubt that consensus democracy promotes more generous policies.     

EG-Umwelthaftungs-Richtlinie und Biodiversität

Im April 2004 ist die Richtlinie 2004/35/EG des Europ?ischen Parlamentes und des Rates über Umwelthaftung zur Vermeidung und Sanierung von Umweltsch?den (Umwelt-Haftungs-Richtlinie – UH-RL) in Kraft getreten. Der deutsche Gesetzgeber hat die Richtlinie bis zum April 2007 in nationales Recht umzusetzen, ein Referentenentwurf liegt bereits vor. Dieser Beitrag stellt die zentralen biodiversit?tsspezifischen Regelungen der Richtlinie vor und bewertet sie vor dem Hintergrund des bestehenden deutschen Rechts. Die Richtlinie konstituiert eine ?ffentlich-rechtliche Verantwortlichkeit der Verursacher von Umweltsch?den, der Eingriffsbefugnisse der Beh?rden korrespondieren. Sie bringt an einigen Punkten Neuerungen für das deutsche Recht. Bei Sch?den an den von der Richtlinie erfassten geschützten Arten und Lebensr?umen fordert sie nicht nur die Wiederherstellung des früheren Zustandes, sondern verlangt auch einen Ausgleich für „zwischenzeitliche Verluste“.     

‘Liberation Technology’ or ‘Net Delusion’? Civic Activists’ Perceptions of Social Media as a Platform for Civic Activism in Belarus and Ukraine

Abstract

This article analyses activists’ attitudes towards using social media for civic actions in authoritarian and democratising countries. Specifically, it examines whether civic activists in Belarus and Ukraine perceive social media as ‘liberation technology’ or as unhelpful and overhyped, a ‘net delusion’. We compare the ways in which civic activists use social media for the purpose of spreading information, networking and mobilisation. We find that social media is used by them for civic activism in order to campaign for civil and political liberties in their countries. Civic activists are generally enthusiastic about the use of social media, however we highlight challenges arising from socio-political conditions as well as negative consequences of activists’ online engagement.