Apocalypse Now!: From Freud,Through Lacan,to Stiegler’s Psychoanalytic ‘Survival Project

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The objective of this article is to explore the value of psychoanalysis in the early...     

Multiculturalism,Institutional Law,and Imaginary Justice

Following Le Pen's relative successin the French presidential vote and the BritishNational Party's historic return in our own2002 local elections, the article considers theprospects for the production of morecommunicative race relations in contemporaryBritain. To this end we reassess the media'streatment of the Stephen Lawrence case andexplore the political logic of the Macphersonreport, the policy document which followed theapparent miscarriage of justice that allowedLawrence's alleged killers to walk free. Interms of our analysis of the media we areconcerned to show how the real of Britain'sordinary racism was hidden behind an ideologyof multiculturalism that scapegoated singularindividuals to cover for the structuralinequalities of wider society. The article aimsto show how the media upheld the notion ofobjective justice that institutional law wasapparently unable to secure.But while the media supported the ideology ofthe law, its exposure of the failings ofinstitutional law also led to calls for legalreform to guarantee the realisation ofinstitutional justice. Although we accept thatthe attempt to achieve legal totality isimpossible, our argument is that the critiqueof legal objectivity, which takes in subjectiverights claims, may present the possibility forthe realisation of a novel, inclusive, model ofrace relations. That is to say that althoughthe media supports the ideology of the law, thefact that this support requires a critique ofpractical law forces the law to modernisearound the idealistic demands of its ownideological structure. Akin toDouzinas,¹ who has argued for theendless expansion of rights as post-modernutopianism, we believe that this process ofmodernisation, which is arranged to maintainthe status quo through minimal reform, is thecondition of possibility of a more inclusivesystem of race relations.     

“The one single primary cause”: divorce,the family,and heterosexual pleasure in postwar Australia

Abstract

In the late 1940s, the popular Australian journal Smith's Weekly boldly announced that “the one single primary cause” of divorce was “physical maladjustment between man and wife through ignorance of sex.” By the 1950s, the links between sex and divorce were omnipresent. Regardless of the traumas of World War II and the difficulties faced by both men and women in re-acclimatising to “normal” civilian life, rising divorce rates were commonly linked to sexual dissatisfaction within the marital bed. The new model of heterosexual pleasure demanded a certain kind of sexual life: regular, penetrative, and completed by the simultaneous orgasm. Anything else was troubling and probably unsatisfactory. Given that various sex writers suggested that at least half of all married women were sexually frustrated, the potential for divorce hence social disaster was clear. The sexual lives of citizens, then, were ripe for a raft of public commentaries—for marital sex could undermine postwar population, the nuclear family, and the very foundations of 1950s Australian citizenship. This article will explore the twin concepts of divorce and heterosex and the multiple ways sexual dissatisfaction was linked to social and sexual disorder.     

EMU and economic governance in Germany

This article argues the value of models of policy analysis which focus on the role of endogenous variables in explaining policy change. Studies of EMU and studies of German public policy in general have tended to be preoccupied with contextual variables as explanations of change. Whilst such variables are important in identifying necessary conditions of policy change, they underestimate the dynamics within the policy process. Policy change in EMU is explored as a negotiation process with two interacting dimensions: a ‘nested’, ‘two‐level’ bargaining game, involving creative linkage politics and sophisticated bargaining strategies, and a cognitive dimension of individual policy entrepreneurship and learning in the process. The conclusions deal with the character of economic governance in this sector and with the prospects for EMU in 1998–99.     

Psychoanalysing the 21st Century: Introduction

The purpose of this introduction is to sketch out the value of psychoanalysis for the twenty-first century and in particular the ways in which analysis might enable us to move beyond the crisis of the post-Cold War symbolic order.

     

Contents of Volume 14

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 14     

The Limits of External Empowerment: EMU, Technocracy and Reform of the Greek Pension System

This paper seeks to explain an aborted attempt at reform of the Greek pension system, following a series of previous failures. It applies the framework of rational choice institutionalism in order to examine the strategy and setting of the relevant actors. The pension system had become a huge fiscal burden on the state, threatening Greece's position in the European Union. Moreover, its gross inequalities of provision and bureaucratic inefficiency were symptoms of the embedded clientelism and 'disjointed corporatism' that stood in the way of the government's self-proclaimed 'modernization' programme. In the event, though EMU entry requirements empowered the reform momentum, a combination of the strategic weakness of key actors and the entrenched opposition of sectoral interests dissipated the initiative. The failure suggests the relevance of the wider social setting to reform: in particular, the weakness of the technocratic community and the relative absence of a supportive 'advocacy coalition', beyond the dominance of the 'party state'. Faced with criticism, the political leadership sought to protect their electoral position and postponed pressing decisions. The case study raises important questions about the scope for such reform in Greece and the future stability of the 'Euro-zone'.