Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this article is to review the main hypotheses on Questione meridionale, the Southern Question, a term which means the differences between the North & South of Italy, their causes, & possible solutions. All the hypotheses on the problem refer to three sectors: structural, economic, & cultural. Structural explanations include inefficiency, corruption of state administration, poor infrastructure & clientelism. Economic explanations revolve around the economic relation that was established between the North & South after the political union (1861). On one hand the Southern capitals go to the North in the form of taxes or State investments or Treasury bonds; on the other hand the North uses the South as a market for its manufactured goods. Cultural approaches explain Southern backwardness as is the result of a mentality characterized by lack of collaboration, lack of interest in public welfare, & victimization. All three types of explanations are inspired by North American or North European models, & "blame" the South for not being more like the North. In the last part of this article two scenarios are discussed. The first is that the cleavage between North & South will remain in the coming years. The second is that the cleavage will disappear as a result of European cultural & economic integration process & new cleavages formed by non-European immigration. 9 Tables, 1 Chart, 174 References. Adapted from the source document.

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: Gender hierarchies challenged

This study takes its starting -point in the Swedish referendum about a membership in the European monetary union. The purpose of the study is to explain the differences that became visible during the EMU-referendum, by thoroughly explore macro-factors & their importance to the voting against a membership at a municipal level. In earlier pursued research concerning voting behaviour & public opinion differences general explanations appear which work as an initial position for this study, the creation of three alternative explanation models & the macro factors to be tested. This study has a statistical design & its intention is to study macro-factors in the 290 municipals of Sweden through collecting material from several sources. The material has been compiled to analytical aggregate data & will be analysed through bivariate- & multivariate regressions. The result shows that the differences that became visible concerning the EMU-referendum can be explained from economic factors & economic structural differences between the municipals. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article focuses on the justification of a positive & a negative attitude respectively towards judicial review. The analysis is performed by textual analysis of the texts of four authors with different opinions on the subject matter: Robert Dahl & Jeremy Waldron who have a negative attitude towards judicial review, & Erwin Chemerinsky & Ronald Dworkin who have a positive attitude. A theoretical model is being used for the analysis, which consists of different dimensions of the issue of democracy & judicial review. The study shows that there are important differences in the democratic values underpinning a positive & a negative attitude. There are differences of opinion on the balance between democracy as; process or substance, rule by the broad mass of people or rule by an elite, the spirit of the community or the rights of the individual. The analysis also points out that there are differences concerning the comprehension of the important democratic concepts of liberty & equality. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

What is the political significance of affiliation with voluntary associations for people with and without foreign backgrounds in Sweden? Does associational affiliation offer an opportunity to influence the political decision-making process for those otherwise disfavoured in terms of political resources? Or does it rather aggravate the political marginalisation of people with foreign backgrounds? This thesis is based on two large-scale surveys that have been designed explicitly to deal with questions of this sort. It is shown that there are substantial differences in associational affiliation between people with and without foreign backgrounds. Interestingly, these differences are strongly correlated with patterns of ethnification and ethnic discrimination in Swedish society. Individuals who have migrated to Sweden from Western Europe and North America participate in voluntary associations to the same extent as native Swedes. In contrast, the levels of associational affiliation are consistently lower among people who have migrated to Sweden from other parts of the world, even controlling for age, education, occupation and other potentially important factors. The study supports the widely held notion that there is a positive causal relation between associational affiliation and political participation. However, this seems to be true only with regard to certain forms of political participation and only seldom to such an extent that differences in associational affiliation can be said to strongly affect the relative levels of political engagement of people with and without foreign backgrounds. In particular, the observed differences in associational affiliation seem to have little to do with the often debated marginalisation of immigrants in the electoral arena. ; Etnisk organisering och politisk integration i storstaden

The article analyses current debates on securitization theory. It is argued that there are a number of concepts of politics in play and that greater awareness regarding these conceptual differences helps clarify not only theoretical differences but also the possibilities for new theoretical development and reflection. Three conversations on politics are identified: first, how politics concerns action and intentionality; second, the modern organization of politics, spheres and sectors; and, third, the relationship between politics, ethics and science. Where the first and third conversations refer to politics as an act, in the second politics is inherently tied to the institutional or spatial structures of government - the state, the public, the political field, spheres, sectors or function. Adapted from the source document.

This thesis discusses argumentative strategies for legitimation and delegitimation in political pamphlets published in 1769 and in 1809–1810, each period representing the onset of democracy and freedom of the press. The aim of the study is twofold. The empirical aim is to examine the political language in the early political debate in pamphlets, with a focus on how the discursive strategies of legitimation and delegitimation are realised linguistically in the emerging public sphere. The theoretical and methodological aim is to discuss the kind of understanding modern methods of text analysis, specifically such used in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), can provide in the analysis of texts as old as 250 years. The thesis uses a framework for analysing legitimation as put forward by van Leeuwen and Wodak and proposes a framework for the analysis of delegitimation strategies. Specific attention is given to irony as a delegitimation strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed on the material (consisting of 232 pamphlets) and an extensive description of the context is given in order to provide a deeper understanding of the discursive practice of debate in pamphlets – which is necessary for the analysis of discursive strategies. The pamphlets in the two periods share many characteristics, but also exhibit many differences that can partly be explained by differences in context. The different contexts yield texts with seemingly different functions: while proposals and attacks seem to be prototypical text functions for political debate, the second period also has many texts that function as appeals for unity and mythopoetic narratives. Other differences between the periods concern the choice of authorisation strategies, the extent of moral evaluation and the use of mythopoesis. The most striking difference is that delegitmising strategies are much less frequent in the debate in the second period, 1809–1810, when the political situation was dramatic and delicate. The theoretical discussion in this thesis circles around the concept of rationalisation and proposes a concept of irrationalisation. Irony is then seen as the prototypical irrationalisation strategy.