Suchergebnisse

The article compares the Norwegian & the German political debate on changes to the respective countries' citizenship laws. The Norwegian law will come into force in September 2006, while the German law was introduced in 2000. In citizenship laws we can find a contrast between an ethnic & cultural understanding of political community & a rights-based understanding. This contrast was hardly touched upon in the Norwegian debate. Among the Norwegian political parties there was broad agreement to carry on with the principle of ethnic decent. Moreover, all parties, with an exception of the Socialist Left Party (SV), wanted to introduce more restrictions on the established Norwegian practice to accept dual citizenship. The German debate dealt with the contrasting principles, & the conflict followed the left/right cleavages. The main difference found between the two countries refers to the left parties. Both with regard to the principle of ethnic decent/territorial principle & the acceptance of dual citizenship, the Social Democrats in Norway & Germany presented opposite standpoints. References. Adapted from the source document.

The Liberian state was originally founded by freed American slaves, or Americo-Liberians, who became the elite group of the country and against whom the natives fought. A bloody war lasted from 1989 to 2003 between the 16 different groups of people, which eventually tapered down in 2003 when the United Nations re-entered the country. Since then, the UN has fought for increased security and against corruption and conflicts, which were reduced by democratizing and localizing the political power. The major unsolved problems evolve around citizenship and landownership issues. Commissions have been set up to solve these, but they lack funding, political support and a clear mandate. The 100,000 soldiers that became unemployed after the war ended are also causing concerns in a newly stabilized country that essentially lacks legitimacy among its people. L. Pitkaniemi