Suchergebnisse

"Sierra Leone came to world attention in the 1990s when a catastrophic civil war linked to the diamond trade was reported globally. This fleeting and particular interest, however, obscured two crucial processes in this small West African state. On the one hand, while the civil war was momentous, brutal and affected all Sierra Leoneans, it was also just one element in the long and faltering attempt to build a nation and state given the country's immensely problematic pre-colonial and British colonial legacies. On the other, the aftermath of the war precipitated a huge international effort to construct a 'liberal peace', with mixed results, and thus made Sierra Leone a laboratory for post-Cold War interventions. Sierra Leone examines 225 years of its history and fifty years of independence, placing state- society relations at the centre of an original and revealing investigation of those who have tried to rule or change Sierra Leone and its inhabitants and the responses engendered. It interweaves the historical narrative with sketches of politicians, anecdotes, the landscape and environment and key turning-points, alongside theoretical and other comparisons with the rest of Africa. It is a new contribution to the debate for those who already know Sierra Leone and a solid point of entry for those who wish to know."--Publisher's description

The history of religion, like some other social sciences, is difficult to define precisely; a historical phenomenology & a historical typology both have weaknesses. Primitive, archaic, historical, & modern religions display significant differences; Third World religions are unique in being products of societies that passed directly from archaic culture to modern civilization through colonialization. Several examples are presented of religious phenomena that require an interdisciplinary approach. Bourgeois society has deprived religion of the function of legitimizing social & political behavior, but it remains a source of meaning & strongly influences modernization processes, taking the form of messianic movements that seek either national unity or the abolition of SC society. W. H. Stoddard.

In my course, I have students read the Federalist
and some of the antifederalist writings. And I require them to read
as much of Tocqueville's Democracy in America as
possible. But I begin with Shakespeare's
Coriolanus. This choice of text is peculiar, and I
here address myself to that peculiarity. My aim is to show that
Coriolanus fits with these other works and to
show, given the depth and breadth of its themes, that it might also
profitably be read and studied in other political science courses.
To put it in the briefest compass: the more prominent themes of
Coriolanus—the nature of ancient politics,
political expertise, regimes, and the interplay of honor and
ambition—make it well suited to the exploration of politics in
general.