Suchergebnisse

The limitations of existing research on the formation of center-right political parties in Central & Eastern Europe are examined. Several shortcomings with historical-structural accounts of center-right party formation are identified; eg, it is stated that such perspectives generally overlook issues concerning the vitality, unity, & success of such parties in Central & Eastern European states. Therefore, scholars are encouraged to address certain political issues that have been deprioritized in historical-structural accounts. Various political concerns to be tackled by such research are reviewed, including the identification of critical junctures in party formation, the analysis of both macro- & microinstitutional factors responsible for party development, & the role of certain elites & ideologies in center-right party creation. The political prospects for center-right parties in Central & Eastern European nations are also pondered. J. W. Parker

'Religion' still occupies and maintains a position of formal and informal privilege in many current societies. It retains these privileges despite the increasing numbers of people who label themselves 'non-religious'. There is also evidence that overtly non-religious people are being persecuted due to the continuation of these privileges. This paper will examine such treatment of the non-religious in the context of human rights instruments and laws. It lays out the international law case for the rights of the non-religious. It also discusses the extent to which state actors have or have not ignored human rights standards in their persecution or deprivileging of non-religious people. This paper will proceed through a three-step analysis. Step 1 is to examine the aspirational Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in relation to the non-religious. The relevant sections of the UDHR and interpretations that they have received will be discussed. Step 2 is to do the same with the binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Finally, Step 3 is to give examples of lower-level and local laws, where I shall examine the extent to which individual countries' laws and practices toward non-religious people support or contradict the treaty commitments that those countries have made. The continuation in coercion/persecution cases suggests that something is amiss with human rights protections being provided to the non-religious. If we are to create social structures that are more inclusive of the non-religious and to advocate for non-religious rights, it is necessary to examine the societal power and privilege still held by 'religion'. It is hoped that this article can inform and encourage further similar engagements among sociologists, religious studies scholars, activists and lay-people interested in the treatment of non-religious peoples.

The starting points of this paper imply a use from one article (Englund 2010) published within the project (Education as a citizenship right – parents' rights, children's rights or ….) in which the parental right to educational authority is questioned. Using deliberative democracy as an ideal I am putting the question if it is possible to create a deliberative democracy without future citizens growing into a pluralist, deliberative culture developing deliberative capabilities, with schools serving as crucial intermediate institutions. It is within common schools that encounters between different cultures, different value orientations etc. can take place and classrooms as weak publics can be created. However, this kind of development seems less plausible with the renaissance of what can be called liberal patriarchalism now legitimizing the growing use of parental right to educational authority[1], at the same time neglecting children's right to a pluralist education. In my paper I will try to analyze the components of this dilemma by relating it to an ongoing discussion on citizenship education questioning in what perspective this citizenship education shall be seen, in a perspective of societal reproduction of from a perspective of each child's rights to a pluralist education.[2]Depending on in what perspective this question is seen we find different outcomes. [1]The liberal, private-law paradigm privileges individual freedom, e.g. parental right to educational authority and civil rights at the same time subordinating political and social citizenship rights (Marshall 1949/1964, Habermas 1996). Among philosophers of education, William Galston (1991, 2002, 2005) is an outspoken proponent to parental right to educational authority. [2]William Galston (1991) poses two dilemmas about parental rights and education. The first of these arises from conflict between the proper ends of civic education in a liberal society and the values that some parents will want to honor in the way they rear their children; the second arises from conflict between how basic interests of the child are understood by the wider society and the dissident views of some parents (cf. Callan 2006) ; Education as a citizenship right - parental rights, children's right or .

The impact of transnational corporations on the nutritional rights of inhabitants of the Caribbean islands in 1960-1980 is examined. The quantity & quality of land ownership by transnationals in agriculture, petrochemicals, & mining, & their nonuse & abuse of landholdings, evictions of poor peasants from their land, pollution of rivers, & infant-formula marketing, are shown to have an adverse effect on the food intake of Caribbean nonelites. 2 Tables. AA.

This essay discusses the grounds for due process rights (DPRs) and the permissibility of suspending them during terrorist and other emergencies. The two topics are profitably treated together because DPRs - along with freedoms of movement, expression, and political participation - are often suspended or restricted when national emergencies occur. Although I present a strong case for DPRs as human rights, this justification does not settle their priority during emergency situations. That issue raises additional questions, and I discuss some of them. The overall thrust of the essay is to defend the importance of respecting DPRs during troubled times. The penultimate section discusses DPRs in the context of the "war on terror" in the United States.

Human Rights are complex social phenomenon that includes political, legal,
cultural and economic dimensions and escapes a simple definition. Concise
retrospective of human rights documents of historic value as well as natural
law doctrine was used as a frame for determination of political importance
and function of human rights. Natural law definition of human rights was
completed by positivist critique. Human rights are seen as a legal expression
of interactions of individual needs and expectations on the one hand, and
readiness and capabilities of a state to satisfy these needs and expectations
and to create social framework for their satisfaction on the other. The
relationship between human rights and culture was discussed. A thesis on
equality of human rights in all different jurisdictions was qualified by
recognition of certain space - a margin of appreciation - left to states for
adaptation of international standards of human rights to local culture in a
process of implementation of abstract and general provisions of human right
treaties in domestic law. An appearance of international organizations that
interfere in human rights as well as an increase of extraterritorial effects
of state activities is a challenge to classic legal understanding of a human
right as the legal relationship between a state and individuals under its
territorial jurisdiction. International humanitarian law protects certain
human rights of individual outside territorial jurisdiction of states in war.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has started to
consider extraterritorial effects of state activities in respect of economic,
social and cultural rights. International environmental law obliges states to
take care of extraterritorial effects of activities undertaken under their
jurisdictions. The time has come for recognition of an obligation of a state
to respect human rights of individuals outside its territorial jurisdiction
who are affected by its extraterritorial activities or by extraterritorial
effects of activities undertaken on its territory. It seems that an
obligation of international organization to respect human rights of
individual affected by its acts is not disputable.

The political turn of 1998 in post-transition Hungary marked the beginning of a new era: the rise of the New Right. Fidesz, which used to be a liberal party during the regime change of 1989, later changed its political stance. Under the presidency of Viktor Orban, Fidesz became a centre-right party by adopting a mixed ideology that contained contradictory elements. The reason for Fidesz's electoral success in 1998 was that it responded to the social need for order and democratic consolidation after the turbulent years of political and economic transformation. However, the years when Fidesz governed Hungary (1998-2002) could be characterized by both conservative consolidation and populist mass mobilization. Voters could not fully understand why the rhetoric of 'second revolution' would lead to the consolidation of democracy. This sort of contradictory agenda-setting from above alienated the majority of voters in the 2002 elections so Fidesz was replaced by the returning MSZP-SZDSZ left-liberal coalition government. Despite two electoral losses (2002 and 2006), Fidesz created a second political culture, an alternative polity that established itself as the Hungarian version of the New Right, a mixture of populism, conservatism, and plebeian, redistributionist, economic nationalism. The emergence of the Hungarian New Right reinterpreted social conflicts, and sharpened political division in the society. Adapted from the source document.

"This book explores the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Right to Water and analyzes its values in the context of water policy frameworks of the union governments in India. It uses a qualitative approach and combines critical hermeneutics with critical content analysis to introduce a new water policy framework. The volume maps the complex argumentative narrations which have emerged and evolved in the idea of Right to Water and traces the various contours and the nature of water policy texts in independent India. The book argues that the idea of Right to Water has emerged, evolved and is being argued through theoretical arguments and is shaped with the help of institutional arrangements developed at the international, regional, and national levels. Finally, the book underlines that India's national water policies drafted respectively in 1987, 2002 and 2012, are ideal but are not embracing the values and elements of Right to Water. The volume will be of critical importance to scholars and researchers of public policy, environment, especially water policy, law, and South Asian studies"--

A review essay on a book by Ray Takeyh, Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic (Times Books, 2006).

Marginalized groups frequently adopt a respectability politics strategy, presenting themselves as adhering to dominant norms to gain public support. The LGBTQ movement, for example, has consciously portrayed same-gender relationships as exemplifying heteronormative values to win over straight Americans. But how effective is this strategy? Two survey experiments show that presenting LGB people as adhering to, or violating, norms of monogamy and exclusivity has null to minimal effects on straight respondents' views of them or support for their rights. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the effects are moderated by (1) respondents' political predispositions; or (2) the race, ethnicity, or gender of the LGB people being highlighted. Emphasizing the respectability of same-gender relationships is not as effective as the movement has assumed. More broadly, these results call into question the assumption that highlighting "respectable" members of marginalized groups is an effective way to change public opinion.

Explores the usurpation of religion by fascist & other totalitarian regimes to further their own ends. Attempts by these governments to forge new moralities from existent religious beliefs are seen as efforts to engineer a new model of human being. In conveying the complexities of the relationship between political religions & social evil, the response of European Christians to pseudo-religious totalitarian dictatorships is explored. Grim experiences severed Christian Europe's ties to the extreme Right but clerics ignore the massive loss of life & misery resulting from Marxism & continue to flirt with ideologies of the totalitarian Left. A. E. Sadler

Attaining and maintaining a substantial Jewish majority in Israel has been one of the basic goals of the State of Israel since its early years. A substantial Jewish majority within the borders of the state is thought to be necessary in order to preserve its Jewish nature. Many believe that the demographic consideration also stood behind the enactment of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), 2003, which prohibits granting Israeli citizenship and residency to Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and prevents, inter alia, Israeli Arabs from living in Israel with their Palestinian spouses.I examine the legitimacy of the demographic consideration from the perspective of liberal political theory. I conclude that demography can, in principle, be a legitimate consideration in deciding immigration policy, and its justification can be derived from the liberal justification of the right to national self-determination. However, the demographic consideration must be assigned its proper role and weight relative to other important liberal values such as equality and other human rights. I suggest that the demographic consideration might be legitimate only to the extent that it is not used to justify immigration policies that violate constitutional rights.I then discuss the Supreme Court decision concerning the constitutionality of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. I demonstrate that, contrary to statements by the judges themselves, the demographic consideration played a key role in the opinions of several judges. It was, however, a hidden consideration. It was not openly acknowledged and discussed. Consequently, a careful examination and balancing of the demographic consideration could not take place. The result was that the actual influence of the demographic consideration on the outcome of the case was much stronger than can be reasonably justified according to liberal principles of justice.