Suchergebnisse

The paper analyses, the communal councils, consejos comunales, in the Sucre State of Venezuela. Communal councils are political bodies, centred on popular assemblies, of small settlements or urban neighbourhoods comprising up to 400 families. The paper addresses three crucial issues: a) their legislative background and creation of communal councils since 2006; b) the process of elaboration, financing and implementations of projects by communities; c) the participation of neighbours to the participatory processes. Communal council, notwithstanding substantial state and party interference, are minute segments of society that constitute themselves as political bodies thus overcoming the dichotomy between elected politicians and citizens through forms of self-organization and an egalitarian participation. Adapted from the source document.

Moving from a neoliberal ideological testing ground to part of the purported new wave of Latin American socialism, the current Bolivian state has attempted to exercise greater control over its number-one-grossing export—its natural gas—and use the sector's profits to drive its program of socioeconomic change. While the state has been able to increase the government's take of the country's hydrocarbon rents, its ability to use its natural gas and associated rents to alter the country's socioeconomic trajectory has been limited by the path-dependent effects of Bolivia's neoliberal turn and the sociomaterial constraints of natural-gas extraction, transport, and use.

In the 2008 Malaysian general election, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN or National Front) lost its two-thirds majority for the first time since independence. BN performed poorly in West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia) but was saved by a strong showing in the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. Understandably, these two states are expected to play a key role in helping BN stay in power in the next general elections. In this article, we shall examine the reasons why BN did well in Sabah. In the main, Sabah politics is still primarily driven by local factors due to its unique history and geographical location. As such, national issues, such as the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case, do not connect with voters in Sabah. Adapted from the source document.

When Georgia became a newly independent state in December 1991, it regarded the West as a geopolitical entity, while Europe became part of its living space. Later, when Europe finally sorted out its status, Georgia found its place on the continent's political map. Very much interested in the European Union's expansion, Tbilisi had to answer the question: What is Europe after all? In Soviet times, Europe was divided (for political rather than geographic reasons) into Western and Eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain disappeared together with the Soviet Union to make way for the newly independent states and new geopolitical realities in Eastern Europe. Today Tbilisi is wondering: Does Georgia stand the chance of gaining full membership in the European Union?

This report on the broadcast media in Nigeria finds that liberalisation efforts in the broadcasting sector have only been partially achieved. More than a decade after military rule, the nation still has not managed to enact media legislation that is in line with continental standards, particularly the Declaration on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The report, part of an 11-country survey of broadcast media in Africa, strongly recommends the transformation of the two state broadcasters into a genuine public broadcaster as an independent legal entity with editorial independence and strong safeguards against any interference from the federal government, state governments and other interests. The report was written by Mr. Akin Akingbulu Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society, IMS, Nigeria.

AbstractThis article questions Norway's role as peace promoter during the Manchurian crisis in the early 1930s. It appears that Norway's attitude towards Japan was more ambiguous and less consonant with the anti-war, anti-Japanese stand hitherto assumed on the basis of Norway's performance in the League of Nations. Norway's foreign ministry was mainly interested in Norway's practical and security needs, and fairly indifferent to events unfolding in the Far East, unless these affected Norwegian economic and political interests. For Norwegian diplomats and senior officials Japan was a civilised state and an important commercial partner. Favourable disposition towards Japan led the foreign ministry in 1934 to appear to acknowledge the ascendance of Emperor Pu Yi in the puppet state Manchukuo. This created considerable embarrassment in diplomatic and political circles.

There is some evidence that the crisis of the financial market has leaded – as some critics suggest - to a crisis of neoliberalism, a crisis of finance driven accumulation or even of a structural crisis of capitalism. The reason for this suggestion is the return of state interventionism. But this is misleading because the state intervened alongside with the formation of new owner relations of capital during the last two decades and supporting this new rising fraction of capital was in itself reorganized. The measures undertaken to smooth down the crisis are still part of an ongoing neoliberal political strategy to deal with a long lasting crisis of overaccumulation, probably ending up in an even deeper crisis including a crisis of political crisis management.

In this paper, we argue that representative bureaucracy is a changing concept, and that in the academic and policy debate on representative bureaucracy in fact three different debates are intermingled. While the debate on representative bureaucracy in Public Administration is generally situated within wider debates about tensions between bureaucracy and democracy, this is only part of the story. We argue that discussions and scholarship on representative bureaucracy in fact employ three different concepts of representative bureaucracy. The reasons for making the bureaucracy representative in these three rival concepts are quite divergent, and even the conception of what representativity means is totally different. These rival concepts reflect a particular view on the role of the state and the relation between states and citizens.

At the turn of the year the political outlook for oil producing states looked grim. The price had dropped to below $40 a barrel, having stood at $147 a mere six months earlier, leaving a number of producers in bad financial shape. High oil prices ,were supposed to lead to political stability and economic growth at home, while projecting power abroad. This logic applied not only to the Gulf, but in Venezuela, Russia, Africa and to a lesser extent, smaller Gulf states. But as the oil price tumlbled, it was expected it would take a number of political casualties across hydrocarbon economies. A year on from the price peak, this has not been the case. Adapted from the source document.