Suchergebnisse

India and Bangladesh are interrelated in geopolitical relations but their core objectives are different. While geopolitical compulsions introduce the never-ending challenges of proximity to the two parties, including crucial issues of security, migration and resource sharing, Bangladesh is yet to form its own identity in which the perceived image of India figures predominantly, and the attitudes and expectations they develop towards each other shape the pattern of bilateral interactions between the two countries. Solutions to a number of vexed problems remain elusive and irritants in relations out-number gestures of goodwill. While the warmth in relations has frequently fluctuated with the change of regimes, a sustained pattern of uneasiness and mistrust persists. Analysed at three levels of geopolitics, attitudinal effects and functional exchanges, India–Bangladesh relations appear as a reflection of normal big country–small country power relations where policies are formulated on the basis of the primary principle of self-help but are further shaded by the quest for transforming itself into a nation-state by Bangladesh.

We argue that the move to free and fair elections is only the first step in a democratic transition. With this change, competition moves into the legislative arena, where interests are defined not in terms of support or opposition to the old regime, but over competing visions of what government should do. Thus, examining legislative behavior and legislative outcomes helps us to understand the long-term political and policy trajectory of democratic transitions. Building on game-theoretic analysis of majority-rule decision-making, our hypothesis is that, after controlling for factors such as seat share, party survival depends on party relevance—the organization's influence over legislative outcomes. Using legislative roll call data from Hungary, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, we show that relevance is a major influence on party survival, even after controlling for seat shares and other factors. The last section of the paper discusses the implications of these results for democracy assistance programs.

Studies that examine the effects of decentralisation for social change or stasis have placed necessary attention on its institutional dynamics: the ways social institutions have transformed as a result of new governance regimes, or alternatively, how the existing institutional context and attendant power relations determine its actualisation. The second facet of the structure/agency dialectic is often overlooked however, that is, the actors themselves. This article seeks to overcome this lacuna by exploring the effects of citizens' engagement in practices associated with decentralised governance for individuals' understandings of self, society, and their relationship with the state. A comparison of two villages in Telangana, India, and Central Lombok, Indonesia reveals how differences in the distribution of welfare benefits have implications for the potential of such interactions to be sites of creative self-formation. Differences such as the regularity and ability to demand entitlements, preferential versus equal access to resources, and the levels at which citizens engage with the state, may be crucial for processes of subjectification, and by extension, social transformation.

AbstractScholars have long debated the causal impact of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund. This study investigates Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an organization that purports to have significant influence over the market for the world's most important commodity–petroleum. Using four empirical tests, I find that OPEC has little or no impact on its members' production levels. These findings prompt the question of why so many people, including scholars, believe in OPEC's influence over the world's oil supply. The idea of OPEC as a cartel is a "rational myth" that supports the organization's true principal function, which is to generate political benefits for its members. One benefit it generates is international prestige. I test this idea using data on diplomatic representation and find that OPEC membership is associated with increased international recognition by other states. Overall, these findings help one to better understand international regimes and the process of ideational change in world politics.

The permanent existence of inflation in Serbia adversely affects achievement of macroeconomic stability. Its effects are reflected in a decrease in the real exchange rate, low price competitiveness of exports and deterioration in the balance of payments. The real exchange rate is an instrument which shows that in conditions of faster growth rate in a country than abroad, the domestic economy can't be competitive in the international market. Implementation of appropriate exchange rate regime inevitably leads to problems of exchange rate changes on import prices and inflation. The research aims to demonstrate the interdependence of inflation and depreciation, and the fact that the general price level increase is a main factor that hinders the realization of the positive effects of the national currency depreciation. Unstable monetary situation in the country undermines the goal of stimulating exports through an increase in the nominal exchange rate and by reducing export prices in foreign currency. Export becomes uncompetitive, while the depreciation of the national currency is quickly spread to inflation through the exchange rate pass-through.

Indonesia's state-owned mosques are important sites for observing changes in religious life that have taken place since the demise of the Suharto regime. During the New Order period, ideological and political factors restricted access to mosques owned and managed by provincial and regency governments. In contemporary West Java, access to such mosques has been broadened, and they now display a diversity of religious programs and practices. Drawing on recent fieldwork, this article makes a case study of the intercession ritual known asmanakibanwhich has recently emerged in government-owned mosques of West Java. It identifies two dominant factors behind the new inclusiveness: a desire for visibility and public legitimacy on the part of some members of the Sufi order that promotes the ritual, and secondly, a broadening of access to state-owned mosques as a result of more inclusive participation in the electoral process. The article contributes to knowledge of the politicisation of religion in contemporary Indonesia, and suggests new possibilities for understanding the meanings of public Islamic infrastructure.

The rapid increase in intra-industry trade (IIT) between the EU15 and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European (CESEE) countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union indicates a structural change in the nature of trade in CESEE and a new process of transition and real convergence to the EU. Using a product-level trade flows database and employing linear and non-linear panel data specifications, this paper assesses the determinants of intra-industry trade between the EU15 as the main trading block and CESEE, which are further divided into the 'new' EU member states (NMS) and the EU candidate countries and potential candidates (CCPC). The analysis highlights the importance of intra-industry trade in terms of achieving real convergence. The paper finds that there exist some common factors driving IIT across the sample, such as the corporate tax rate, the flexibility of exchange rate regimes and the quality of political institutions. However, the determinants of IIT between NMS and EU15 countries deviate considerably from those between CCPC and EU15 countries.

The Arctic is characterized by a well-functioning international governance regime. Arctic and non-Arctic states aim to solve the challenges following climate change in concert. However, certain challenges and processes may destabilize the intergovernmental order in the long run. This report distinguishes between global and regional dynamics. Future global struggles between the great powers may have repercussions in the high north. On the regional level itself, four questions may destabilize Arctic governance: the status of the North-East Passage, unresolved border disputes, the role of China, and the introduction of more military capabilities. The report offers two guidelines for the strategic approach of the Commonwealth of Denmark towards the Arctic. Firstly, the Commonwealth can play a constructive role for the future stability of the Arctic by aiming, to the extent possible, to solve the four regional challenges. Secondly, the approach of the Commonwealth towards the question of Arctic stability cannot be disentangled from Copenhagen's global priorities.

International audience ; The instauration of communism forced many Romanians to choose the path of exile, to choose "freedom". The multiple waves of émigrés mobilised and organised themselves in order to recreate their home society abroad, in order to fight against the Romanian communist regime. Romanian exiled in Paris created cultural and political organisations, published newspapers and novels and tried to change their home country's image abroad. This study argues that the Romanian political exile activities played an important part in the fight against communism. ; L'avènement du communisme détermine de nombreux Roumains à choisir la voie de l'exil, de la «liberté». Les vagues d'émigrés se mobilisent et s'organisent pour recréer une société en exil, pour lutter contre le régime de Bucarest. L'exil roumain à Paris crée des associations politiques et culturelles, publie des revues et des romans et tente d'influer sur l'image de la Roumanie en France. L'objectif de cette étude est d'illustrer, à travers quelques exemples, l'importance de l'exil politique roumain dans la lutte anti-communiste.

International audience ; The instauration of communism forced many Romanians to choose the path of exile, to choose "freedom". The multiple waves of émigrés mobilised and organised themselves in order to recreate their home society abroad, in order to fight against the Romanian communist regime. Romanian exiled in Paris created cultural and political organisations, published newspapers and novels and tried to change their home country's image abroad. This study argues that the Romanian political exile activities played an important part in the fight against communism. ; L'avènement du communisme détermine de nombreux Roumains à choisir la voie de l'exil, de la «liberté». Les vagues d'émigrés se mobilisent et s'organisent pour recréer une société en exil, pour lutter contre le régime de Bucarest. L'exil roumain à Paris crée des associations politiques et culturelles, publie des revues et des romans et tente d'influer sur l'image de la Roumanie en France. L'objectif de cette étude est d'illustrer, à travers quelques exemples, l'importance de l'exil politique roumain dans la lutte anti-communiste.

Electricity generation facilities are the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Although renewable generation facilities offer a cleaner alternative to traditional, carbon-intensive methods of electricity generation, output from renewable facilities is less reliable and more costly relative to facilities that burn fossil fuels. Therefore, in an unfettered marketplace, investment in renewable energy facilities would be slow if not stagnant. In response to concerns regarding anthropogenic climate change and fuel diversity, an increasing number of state governments have implemented statutory and regulatory regimes to incentivize the construction of renewable generation facilities within state or regional borders. These programs run the risk of violating the dormant Commerce Clause because they provide for differential treatment of electricity based, at least in part, upon the commodity's geographic origin. This Note argues that state programs that condition benefits upon the in-region location of a renewable generation facility or physical delivery of electricity from a facility in a neighboring region can survive scrutiny under the dormant Commerce Clause.

Activists have fashioned nonconventional forms of repertoire and contentious performances during the recent conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. Salient among these contentious performances is virtual dissidence. I conceptualize virtual dissidence as a political performance in the repertoire of contention between authoritative regimes and the latter's contenders. The metaphors of repertoire and performance bridge apparent conceptual dichotomies in analyzing the role of social media in the Arab Spring such as structure versus agency in the service of a relational account of it. This essay will not bring these debates to any final resolution; rather, my goal is to provide a modest yet productive intervention in the debate over the importance of Internet activism in social movements. The significance of understanding virtual dissidence as emerging from repertoire is that it frames a meso-level explanation of collective action and political change. It accounts for the constraints imposed by the macro structure and the array of innovative responses ignited by activists' determination.

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY).-- et al. ; The crossover from antidot to dot magnetic behavior on arrays patterned in a ferromagnetic thin film has been achieved by modifying only the geometry. A series of antidot arrays has been fabricated on cobalt with fixed diameter d and by reducing the period of the array p from pd to p

International audience ; The instauration of communism forced many Romanians to choose the path of exile, to choose "freedom". The multiple waves of émigrés mobilised and organised themselves in order to recreate their home society abroad, in order to fight against the Romanian communist regime. Romanian exiled in Paris created cultural and political organisations, published newspapers and novels and tried to change their home country's image abroad. This study argues that the Romanian political exile activities played an important part in the fight against communism. ; L'avènement du communisme détermine de nombreux Roumains à choisir la voie de l'exil, de la «liberté». Les vagues d'émigrés se mobilisent et s'organisent pour recréer une société en exil, pour lutter contre le régime de Bucarest. L'exil roumain à Paris crée des associations politiques et culturelles, publie des revues et des romans et tente d'influer sur l'image de la Roumanie en France. L'objectif de cette étude est d'illustrer, à travers quelques exemples, l'importance de l'exil politique roumain dans la lutte anti-communiste.

Collective bargaining is widely advocated as one means of addressing continued gender pay disparities. However, since collective bargaining has been weakened as a mode of employment regulation, its efficacy relative to statutory regulation is a matter of debate. This article examines the relationship between collective bargaining and the law and the impact of bargaining content and structures on gender equality outcomes, by focusing on France and the United Kingdom, two EU countries which have markedly different collective bargaining traditions and structures, contrasting legal traditions and different gender regimes. The comparison highlights the respective contributions of supportive legislation, bargaining structures and bargaining equity as drivers of change, emphasizing the particular importance of supportive legislation in the two countries, as well as the particular vulnerability of UK gains (in the context of recessionary conditions, a voluntaristic approach and a weakened and localized bargaining framework) and the weakness of bargaining in relation in France, in the context of supportive legislation but inadequate legal enforcement.