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A review essay on a book by John Keane, Violence and Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U Press, 2004). References.

Aufzeichnung einer unter Finanzexperten geführten Diskussion über die Krise, der Globalisierung. Ihr unmittelbarer Anlaß war die finanzwirtschaftliche Krise in Thailand und darauifhin in Japan. An den Ursachen der Asien-Krise hätten sich die Teilnehmer nicht verständigen können. Daher meinten einige von ihnen, es wäre fruchtbarer, darüber zu reden, wie die Risiken der freien Weltwirtschaft einzuschränken seien. Dabei wurde postuliert, daß es eine Aufgabe der Wirtschaftspolitik gäbe, mit der alle, von Keynes bis Friedman, einverstanden wären: Regierungen gemeinsam mit den Zentralbanken trügen die Verantwortung für eine solche Entwicklung der Staatsausgaben, die ein vernünftiges inflationsfreies Wachstum gewährleiste. (BIOst-Hrs)

The article deals with the conception of cleavages & the prerequisites and/or possibilities for its application in the study of modern collective action. First, a brief history of the concept is introduced & some of its key later interpretations & elaborations are used to clarify the original theories of social divides & political conflicts, & to explore their structure, character & actors in more detail. On the grounds of these suggestions, the article reviews the cleavage "freezing" thesis & discusses the processes of transformation of modern cleavages, as well as the rise of "new politics" & "new social movements." Finally, a model of cleavage hybridization is proposed in order to explain the character, political context & history of some major present-day social movements. Adapted from the source document.

Clearly visible changes of forms, symbolism and patterns of transnational collective mobilization and political protest have taken place roughly over the course of the last decade. The aim of this article is to introduce an actor that represents these changes (and one of the key non-state collective actors of the present) -- the Global Justice Movement (GJM) -- through mapping the major related debates. Basically, two principal axes of both academic and political discourse on GJM are distinguished: first, there are the debates on the static or lasting attributes of the movement, and second, there are those on the dynamics and processional character of the movement. This text focuses on a dynamic approach to the study of collective action and strives to incorporate fundamental analytical and political arguments in their respective fields of study. Adapted from the source document.

This article focuses on the transition to democracy in South Korea in 1987. The aim of this work is to explain the causes & processes of this transition, using the theory of transition to democracy as well as the classification of transition in typologies developed by Samuel P. Huntington, Phillippe C. Schmitter, & Terry Lynn Karl. For this purpose, author deals with the role of mass mobilization in the process. Adapted from the source document.

Direct action constitutes an important repertoire of action for environmental movements. Direct action is a way to bring attention to problems but it is also a goal and a value in itself. The paper deals with two different concepts of direct action: the liberal concept, which views direct action in instrumental terms, and the anarchist concept, which rather understands direct action in terms of values and as a preferred way of acting. The article particularly pays attention to environmental direct action, which further develops the anarchist concept of direct action as a preferred way of doing things. On the basis of an empirical research that was carried out, it answers the questions of how Czech environmental organisations have employed these different concepts of direct action, why their use of the liberal concept is very limited and why direct action as a preferred way of doing things has not yet become a part of the repertoire of collective action. The article finds an explanation for this in the very specific historical experience of the Czech environmental movement, which has tended to dialogue with power rather than confrontations with it, the political ostracism of the movement in the 1990s, and the different developments of the environmental and anarchist milieus, which did not allow for an overlapping of these milieus that would serve as the basis for the development of the practice of environmental direct action. Adapted from the source document.

The article addresses issues related to the growing importance of non-governmental organizations & social movements in world politics. The key question that the article deals with is whether there are structures of global political activism in the making? In other words, is a "global civil society" being constituted? If yes, how does this "global civil society" relate to local actors? Are global actors partners in the building of local activism? In addition, how do the actors of the "global civil society" relate to states? Do they transcend the confines of the state? In order to answer these questions, the article first describes the evolving debate around the issue of transnational relations. During the last decade this issue has become an important research problem in at least two social scientific disciplines -the theory of international relations & the theory of collective action. Moreover, the attention paid to transnational social movements & net-works of non-governmental organizations has influenced debates in certain fields of political theory where actors described as "global civil society" came to be perceived as the manifestation of reformist hopes associated with globally organized civic activism. This activism is believed to hold the promise of future global democratization. In sum, the issue of transnational relations & transnational political action is an interdisciplinary problem. The aim of this article is to answer the specified questions above. It reflects the most important aspects of the debate on transnational political action. The ambition of the article is to critically assess both empirically oriented approaches & normatively motivated explorations of the possibilities for global democratization through political involvement of transnational movements & non-governmental organizations. The paper maintains that the concept of "global civil society" is applicable for the description of political action "beyond borders" only under the condition that it is not understood as an alternative to the institutions of the modern state & that it is not used in an ideological way. References. Adapted from the source document.

The category of antisystemic actors is employed relatively often in political science. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, it criticizes the contemporary usage of "antisystemicity" as too self-contained an analytical concept. In order to demonstrate this, two key theoretical traditions of the term -- G. Sartori's classification of party systems & world-systemic ("Wallersteinian") research of international political economy & its challengers -- are described, analyzed & mutually compared. Their understanding of antisystemic protest is depicted in order to show some shortcomings & inadequacies of their usage of this category. Second, the article strives to theoretically & formally unfold, integrate & further develop the concept of antisystemic contention in order to clarify the modes of its usages for socio-political reality. This inquiry consists of analyses of three key factors of antisystemic collective action -- ie., its object, subject & relations in-between. The analysis of object is basically grounded in Luhmann's neofunctionalist theory of modernization. Based on a systems theory analysis of society, the article proceeds to grasp the subject-actor as a general & case insensitive category, thus connecting existing concepts of antisystemic political subjects. Further analyzed dimensions of antisystemic protest are its goals & forms of action, but also its penetration by politics & economy. In conclusion, a general three-dimensional typology of antisystemic collective action is drawn from preceding analyses & offered as a methodological tool for empirical research of political contention. Adapted from the source document.

The article deals with the political theory of social movements, as formulated by several key thinkers of the Frankfurt School. The mode of their explanation of mobilization, nature, & political potential of social movements is derived from their general theories of society & societal change, associated with the decline of influence of the classic Marxist paradigm of political protest, & presented as an attribute of the increasing importance of culturally oriented collective action analysis in this tradition of political thought. The closing part highlights several crucial joint features of these approaches, thus emphasizing their existence as a distinctive, internally coherent, & analytically inspirational theoretical perspective. Adapted from the source document.

According to the 1867 constitution the Habsburg Monarchy's armed forces consisted
of the common army, the navy, the Austrian Landwehr and the Landsturm. The armed forces
had authority over three ministries and were themselves subject to the rule of three parliamentary
institutions. From the beginning the growth of the armed forces had not kept pace
with that of the population as a whole. There was a low volume of conscripts and poor training
of reservists. This resulted in a relatively small army both in peace time and during war and
meant that by the spring of 1918 Austria-Hungary had practically exhausted its available human
resources. This was exacerbated by the high number of losses, both through death and capture.
On the battlefield the number of deaths is thought to have been between 905,000 and 1,200,000
with 1.8 million injured. At the same time the number of deaths and illness in the hinterland
increased while the rate of fertility dropped. In order to resolve this the government applied
a number of measures: the upper age limit of conscription increased, the necessary standards
for recruitment were lowered, training period was shortened, more use of weapons, factory
workers were replaced with women, prisoners of war and workers from the occupied territories.
However at this time the importance of the "war economy" was also growing which resulted in
an increase in firms requesting the release of their employees from military service. In 1918 the
Habsburg Monarchy had not only exhausted its human resources but was also on the brink of
economic collapse.