Suchergebnisse

The Argentine novelist Ricardo Piglia's The Absent City reflects upon the retrieval of the past as a prerequisite for healing from national trauma. If postdictatorship countries are to implement a transition to democracy, their citizens must confront the past. The denial of national trauma perpetuates tyranny. Taken together, the many fragmented stories in Piglia's novel can be viewed as a metaphor for the process of retrieving a repressed history. The central trope of the novel is Elena, a gendered machine made responsible for integrating Argentina's past dissociations and making healing possible.

The renewal of political philosophy in France often entails forgetting the discrete yet pioneering work of the thinkers at its origin. The present article seeks to analyze the contribution of one such philosopher, Miguel Abensour. Our hypothesis is that his contribution to French political philosophy can be found in a willingness to think at once a critique of domination & the articulation of a philosophy of emancipation. By analyzing his interpretation of totalitarianism, we shall examine how Abensour's philosophy of emancipation consists most notably of three elements: a counter to Hobbes, a relationship with utopia, & a reading of "untamed" democracy. Adapted from the source document.

African countries are among those receiving the most foreign aid per capita. Many detractors blame that aid for encouraging dictatorship and undermining democracy. This article takes a contrary view. It analyses the relationship between the amount of development assistance given to sub-Saharan countries in the 1990s, and changes in their political systems. There is empirical evidence that arbitrary, unrepresentative government diminished in Africa. The data also suggest a positive, though small, correlation between development assistance and democratisation in the 1990s. The issue now facing many African countries is how to consolidate and extend these reforms on their own, with less external support.

The study of transitology, or how societies experience the transition into democracy, is said to have been changed by the political upheavals in Central & Eastern Europe beginning in 1989, leading debates to take on new forms & impacting the paradigmatic cleavages around which these debates are organized. How the fields of political science & economics confront & complement each other in the arena of transitology is considered, noting the benefits each discipline reaps from the resulting exchanges, borrowings & debates. This introduction to a special issue on transitology holds that its diverse approaches can be grouped into two main categories: classic transitology & path dependence. D. Weibel

Post-conflict African states such as Sierra Leone, face critical challenges as they embark on the complex tasks of reconciliation, peace and the rebuilding of war-torn societies. Conflict transformation ultimately depends on the democratisation of society, in ways that promote equitable inclusiveness in the political process, social justice and the promotion of citizenship rights. This collection of three essays explores the significance of Sierra Leone's 2007 elections in the light of the quest of the people for a democracy that is responsive to social demands, welfare and popular aspirations. It provides first-hand information and analysis of the struggles of the Sierra Leonean citizens to overcome the legacy of a traumatic past, by using their vote to sanction bad governance, and choose a path to a good life and sustainable democracy as the most viable guarantee for peace and development. ; International Intervention and the Struggle for Democracy -- The Role of Youths and the Sierra Leone Diaspora in Democratic Awakening -- The Conduct of the Elections: Challenges of Peacebuilding and Democratisation