Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article investigates the benefit of participation in policymaking. Based on data from interviews with various interest groups, private organisations, and representatives of regions that had been involved in recent policymaking processes in Switzerland, this study analyses the relationship between participation and satisfaction with the policy outcome. The study looks at two different aspects of outcome satisfaction: perceived consensus of a decision and preference attainment. The results show that the level of participation is related to both aspects of outcome satisfaction but that the strength of association is dependent on the type of interest group and the level of conflict among the groups participating in the decision‐making process.

"Sie verfügt über ein höchst effizientes Rekrutierungssystem, ihre Mitglieder sind ideologiefest, engagiert und loyal, ihr politisches Netzwerk ist unübertroffen: Die Muslimbruderschaft dürfte zur stärksten politischen Kraft Ägyptens werden. Dennoch sollte die Europäische Union nicht aufgeben, weiter die demokratischen Kräfte im Umbruchstaat zu fördern." (Autorenreferat)

Democratic regimes' resorting to excessive force when fighting against terrorists is chrestomathically defined as "deviations" or "mistakes". However, the frequency with which such "deviations" and "mistakes" take place and regular repetition of several scenarios give us the right to speak not so much about random dysfunctions as about standard political situations in whose framework, contrary to assertions of democracies' immanent softness and moderation in administering violence even to their avowed enemies, democratic regimes with high probability can apply excessive force to their armed antagonists. This article wants to probe deeper into the question of the causes of such behaviour of democratic governments and to outline most probable sociopolitical scenarios of these governments' falling into excess while combating terrorists.

Substantial progress was achieved in the bicommunal negotiations that were ongoing for almost two years and led to the decision to continue the talks in Switzerland. The aim was to create conditions conducive to a final bargaining agreement between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and the three guarantor states of the Republic of Cyprus: Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Although recent talks in Switzerland failed to deliver a breakthrough, negotiations continue, and hope survives. With the exception of negotiations on security and guarantees -a chapter whose negotiation inevitably also involves Cyprus' three guarantor states- convergence on negotiations in all other chapters, namely territory, property, governance and power sharing, as well as economic and EU matters, have resulted in agreement or have brought the positions of the parties within the radius of an agreement. (Autorenreferat)

Since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has seen a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks. The country's military-led government has undertaken massive counterterrorism operations in the Sinai Peninsula, where professionalization of terrorism has risen sharply in recent years. These include shoot-to-kill policy at checkpoints, curfews, the destruction of tunnels, and the arrest of suspected terrorists. The government has evacuated entire residential areas and started building a buffer zone along the border with Gaza. Its harsh crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the repression of any form of public dissent has also been at the core of its fight against terrorism. However, terrorist attacks still plague Egypt almost on a daily basis, and terrorism in Sinai has taken on particularly dire proportions. Why is the Egyptian government failing?

Der Friedensforscher Reiner Steinweg beschäftigt sich in seinem Aufsatz mit Krisen und Gefahren wirtschaftlicher und ökologischer Art der kommenden Jahrzehnte und warnt, dass die gleichen sozialpsychologischen Mechanismen einsetzen könnten, wie sie die 1920er und 1930er Jahre prägten - Sündenbocksuche, Ausgrenzung usw. Und in einem solchen Klima lässt sich dann auch leicht für neue Kriege mobilisieren. Er leitet daraus die Notwendigkeit ab, rechtzeitig zu handeln: "Wenn es gelingt, ein breites Bewusstsein der jetzt erkennbaren Fehlentwicklungen und Gefahren, ihres (zumindest potentiellen) Zusammenwirkens und gleichzeitig der Notwendigkeit zu schaffen, ihnen gewaltfrei zu begegnen, wird man auch den Kriegstendenzen vorbeugen können, die daraus erwachsen." Er beschreibt dann, was gewaltfreie Aktion im Sinne Gandhis ausmacht und befasst sich mit den Erfolgsaussichten zivilen Ungehorsams und skizziert Ansatzpunkte für gewaltfreie Kampagnen heute.

Why do some authoritarian governments respond beneficently to political protest while others opt for repression? This article argues that beneficent government responses in the form of concessions or institutional inclusion are fostered by three interrelated mechanisms working at three distinct levels: institutionalization of political protest within the polity, external certification of protest demands by legally legitimized authorities, and interest polarization between protesting groups and the government. Empirical comparison of government responses to youth protests before and during the 2011 uprisings in Morocco and Egypt proves that the divergent strategies in the two countries were not the result of spontaneous decision-making in times of heightened regime contention. Rather, they mirror established patterns of protest politics that are relatively resistant to ad-hoc manipulations. By extending the focus beyond a particular episode of contention, this study offers important insights into government-challenger relations in authoritarian regimes.

The author analyzes and compares the approaches of Russian parliamentary parties to understanding the causes and consequences of inter-ethnic conflicts and parties' reaction on conflicts. The article was written on the basis of content-analysis of parties' materials dedicated to accidents which took place in the towns of Salsk, Kondopoga and Stavropol in 2006-2007.

This paper considers aspects of the relationship between policies promoting private sector investment and growth, and policies consolidating peace. It covers post-conflict transitions where external authorities play a major role. A core contemporary peacebuilding policy assumption is that stimulating economic recovery is vital to sustaining political settlements and social cohesion. Yet how do we respond when policies to stimulate investment and imperatives to consolidate peace lead to contradictory choices? The paper considers framing investment-promotion activities as quasi-regulatory in nature, given that external actors are shaping and influencing private sector impacts on peacebuilding. It reflects on ideas of "transitionalism" as a distinctive policy mindset during exceptional recovery periods. It addresses three questions: (1) what is distinctive about transitional approaches to influencing the ways that business actors may impact peacebuilding (compared with "routine" developmental settings)? (2) What is distinctive about promoting conflict-sensitive business activity and investment, and how might this require different priorities? (3) What is the proper balance in transitional policymaking between attracting investment to capital-starved settings, and requiring investment to be responsible? (author's abstract)

In theoretical terms 'peace' remains a largely contested concept. Academics propose competing definitions and conceptualizations, which possess their own normative and analytical advantages or disadvantages. Yet despite heated academic and theoretical debates, studies looking at the empirical understandings of peace and conflict-settlement strategies of different states are largely missing. The paper set out to cover this gap and ask how similarities and differences in the actors' conceptual understandings of peace play themselves out in their agreement and disagreement over the advocated 'peace strategies'. Employing qualitative/ quantitative content analysis of the statements made by the representatives of the Russian Federation and the United States at the UN Security Council, Evgeniya Bakalova and Konstanze Jüngling analyze the debates around four recent and/ or ongoing conflicts (Georgia 2008, Libya 2011, Syria 2011-2014 and Ukraine 2014). The study reveals that while agreement over the conceptualization of peace does not impede further disagreement as to the advocated peace strategies, disagreement at the conceptual level breeds deeper disagreement.