Suchergebnisse

Actors turn to negotiating or spoiling as a means of contesting not only what a proposed peace settlement entails but also who has the power to decide the terms. Conflicts are more likely to witness negotiating and spoiling for purposes of internal contestation to the degree that one or both of the warring parties lack an institutionalized system of legitimate representation. Whether internal contestation leads a group to act as a peace maker or as a peace breaker is conditioned by its position in the internal balance of power. Two eras in the Palestinian national movement—the Palestine Liberation Organization's bid to join the Geneva peace conference in 1973–74 and its engagement in the Oslo peace process from 1993 to 2000—illustrate these propositions. Leaders of national movements and rebel groups, no less than leaders of states, are systematically influenced by domestic politics. As such, sponsors of peace processes should expect spoiler problems unless a movement heals rifts within its ranks.

The article reviews the deformed metallic and ceramic vessels of the Maikop-Novosvobodnenskaya community. The study is mainly based on the author's photographs and sketches, stored in the State Hermitage Museum. The artifacts themselves were published numerous times, but the deformation of vessels, in particular, has not yet been covered. The revealed defects allow us to conclude that some of the vessels of the Maikop Kurgan were damaged intentionally; prior to placing the vessels into the grave, some of them could have been repaired. Of particular interest is a bronze bucket found in the Maikop Kurgan: its hinges for mounting the arched handles were purposely broken, i.e. the bucket was placed in the grave in the "murdered" state. The article analyzes all known shapes of bronze vessels from the whole assemblage of the Maikop-Novosvobodnenskaya community and its periphery. It has been revealed that all of them have some forms of defects or traces of repair. In most cases they are not suitable for household use, which is the very feature of the tradition of placing them in graves. Damage or repair of metallic vessels or spoilage of pottery could have been considered as a possibility for using the damaged vessels by the kinsman in the "land of ancestors", and an individual fragment of a vessel acquired magical properties. The origins of spoiling vessels and the use of individual shreds in funerary rites has its roots in funerary rites of the Proto-Yamnaya culture of the Pre-Maikop period of Ciscaucasia. Thus, we believe that this tradition was borrowed by the bearers of the Maikop culture from their predecessors. Subsequently, it was passed to the tribes of the Middle Bronze Age.

Are our 'democracies' truly democratic? In the Name of the People examines the myth of modern democracy and finds it wanting. The various oligarchies of the world blame the madness of modern life on the greed and stupidity of ordinary people: this book argues that, on the contrary, elites indulge a limitless greed for power and wealth under cover of 'giving the people what they want'. As a coda to his short book, Ivo Mosley examines what true democracy has meant over the last two and a half

Are our 'democracies' truly democratic? In the Name of the People examines the myth of modern democracy and finds it wanting. The various oligarchies of the world blame the madness of modern life on the greed and stupidity of ordinary people: this book argues that, on the contrary, elites indulge a limitless greed for power and wealth under cover of 'giving the people what they want'. As a coda to his short book, Ivo Mosley examines what true democracy has meant over the last two and a half millennia, and examines how it could be incorporated into current political structures to give them meaning, life and accountability.