Suchergebnisse

Der Prozeß zur Lösung des innersüdafrikanischen Konflikts begann ernsthaft mit der Unterzeichnung des National Peace Accords am 14. September 1991 durch nicht weniger als 26 Organisationen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag zeigt der Autor die Hintergründe auf, die zu dieser Friedensvereinbarung führten, analysiert die wesentlichen Punkte des Abkommens und geht kritisch auf Erfolge und Mängel dieser Friedensinitiative ein. Abschließend zieht er allgemeingültige Lehren und Schlußfolgerungen. (DÜI-Hlb)

Der Erfolg beim Aufbau einer neuen Zivilgesellschaft in Südafrika ist im wesentlichen abhängig von der Akzeptanz demokratisch gewählter politischer Macht durch die einzelnen Bevölkerungsgruppen und von deren Verständnis ihrer Grund- und Bürgerrechte. Politische Toleranz ist damit das Herz einer demokratischen zivilen Gesellschaft. Eine 1990 durchgeführte empirische Befragung der verschiedenen politischen und Rassengruppen in Südafrika (jeweils 270 Schwarze und Weiße) zu diesem Thema offenbarte jedoch ein hohes Maß an politischer Intoleranz, die bei den Weißen noch wesentlich stärker ausgeprägt war als bei den Schwarzen. Abschließend werden die Implikationen dieses Mangels an Toleranz analysiert. (DÜI-Hlb)

Diskussion der sich wandelnden politischen Machtverhältnisse zwischen der Regierung in Pretoria und dem ANC. Auf der zentralen Ebene hat sich eine relative, aber doch entscheidende Entmachtung des ANC vollzogen. Diese beeinflußt die Verhandlungposition des ANC negativ, der für die intakte Staatsmacht nur eine geringe Herausforderung darstellt. Da sich zwischen dem ANC und den mächtigen Basisorganisationen und Gewerkschaften ein Graben aufgetan hat, können wichtige Machtquellen vom ANC nicht ins Spiel gebracht werden. Eine erfolgreiche Herausforderung der weißen Staatsmacht hängt von der Konvergenz des Verhandlungsprozesses mit den Machterwartungen der Basis ab. (DÜI-Hlb)

AbstractThis article elaborates relative deprivation theory to a societal level to argue that political unrest is rooted in the polarization of citizens' grievance judgments, rather than the mean level of societal grievance. Using data from twelve cross-national survey projects, it examines the relationship between citizen polarization and political protest in eighty-four democracies and semi-democracies from 1977 to 2010. The study finds that countries with more polarized citizens are more likely to experience nonviolent protest. Protests are most likely in countries where average citizen grievances are low but citizens are polarized, which is consistent with the elaborated theoretical expectations of relative deprivation theory.

The paper discusses briefly the political structure of the industrializing elite in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore and the industrial policy and industrial relations strategies they adopted as part of their national economic development planning process. Worker participation at the national and enterprise levels was adopted as an important strategy for improving industrial relations and for managing human resources. An indepth analysis of the influence of political structure on worker participation indicates significantly different results among the three countries. The multiple-political-parties-multiple-trade-unions structure in India and Sri Lanka impeded the functioning of worker participation and resulted in increased industrial conflict while the single-party-single-union structure in Singapore facilitated complete control of industrial conflict. Nevertheless, industrial relations strategies in the three countries are more or less similar and, if implemented properly, would contribute to the development of an Asian industrial relations system. A few policies are suggested in the paper for implementation and for improving industrial relations to facilitate industrialization of these developing countries. (Intern. Polit. Science Assoc.)

Existing scholarship suggests terrorism is an ineffective method of political contestation; groups rarely achieve their political objectives and are often disrupted by the security services. These findings invite us to look again at the dominant rational choice paradigm, which suggests that terrorism is selected as the best strategy to achieve predetermined goals. Unpicking the assumptions underpinning this model using historical case studies, comparative analysis and typology development, this thesis broadens our interpretation of what those who use terrorism seek to achieve. It does so via a tripartite framework. First, employing a new reading of American pragmatist thought, interpreting militant group goals as culturally and socially mediated problems opens up a new vista of outcomes, in particular examining the way terrorism seeks to change relations between people. Second, using Social Movement Theory as its organising framework, an empirically derived typology of militant groups sets out the background political conditions and organisational characteristics of 28 dormant groups. Using existing models of interpreting outcomes to assess these historical cases demonstrates the unmet challenges of providing robust explanations for why terrorism ends and what it achieves. Third, the thesis explores the promise of a mechanism and process-led approach to explaining outcomes. It does so through in-depth examination of two historical case studies: Kach and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Despite being classified as failures, using largely neglected primary sources, the case studies reveal a range of fascinating and important outcomes that still resonate in Israel and Yemen today. Most of these methodological and conceptual tools are being applied to the question of terrorism's outcomes for only the first or second time. In doing so, this thesis offers greater depth than existing scholarship on how terrorism ends, by looking beyond measures such as success and failure in interpreting outcomes, whilst affording greater breadth through its ability to make comparative assessments at the level of mechanisms and processes. The result is a more detailed and robust set of explanations as to how terrorism ends and what it achieves, illustrated through detailed historical case studies of two interesting, yet often neglected, groups.

Some political leadership styles are of a piece. Jimmy Carter's is a case in point. Both in the comments he privately jotted on the margins of memos from his aides and in his public discourse, Carter exhibited a common concern for detail and insistence on the correctness of his own positions. Other styles are layered, as in that of Dwight Eisenhower, whose apoliltical public demeanor concealed an analytically detached political sophisticate who obtained results by indirection (Greenstein 1982).The political style of President Bill Clinton is neither unitary nor layered. It alternates. The tempest over whether Clinton was involved in a dalliance with a White House intern is a reminder of his tendency to oscillate between an uninhibited, anything-goes approach to leadership and a more measured operating mode in which he sets attainable goals and proceeds skillfully in his efforts to realize them.The pattern is recurrent. After his election as governor of Arkansas in 1978, Clinton instituted a substantial increase in automobile licensing fees, peopled his administration with bearded political activists, and otherwise failed to conform to the political mores of his state. As a result, he was voted out of office two years later. He then spent the next two years stumping the state and promising to remedy his ways. He was returned to office, serving from 1983 to 1993 and establishing a reputation as a pragmatic and effective state executive (Maraniss 1995).