Suchergebnisse

This article pursues two aims. On the empirical level, it challenges the view of Belarus as a 'denationalised', or 'failed' nation, and exposes the country as an area of intensive nation-building. The article demonstrates that, unlike most post-communist states, two versions of national identity have been advanced in Belarus since 1989, with divergent results for their proponents. On the theoretical level, such an atypical experience places qualifications on the instrumentalist approach, that regards nation-building as a political tool. The analysis of identity creation in Belarus suggests that nation-building as a political strategy may be limited by the existing attitudes in the society in question, the socio-economic structures, as well as by the influence of foreign actors. (Nations and Nationalism,ECMI)

The article examines the progress that has been made on the post-civil war state-building project in Sierra Leone. (...) The article probes 1) the efforts to re-invigorate old state institutions; 2) the efforts to create new state institutions; and 3) the efforts by these public institutions to establish democratic control over the body politic. The findings indicate that appreciable amount of efforts have been made in the re-establishment of old state institutions and in the creation of new ones. However, much work needs to be done in the re-establishment of the judiciary. As for new state institutions, three major ones have been established to deal with reconciliation, corruption and war crimes. On the issue of these public institutions establishing democratic control over territorial Sierra Leone, while some progress has been made, much work remans. One of the major hurdles that needs to be overcome is the establishment of law and order throughout the country. The article then discusses the impediments to state-building in Sierra Leone and concludes by mapping out a suggested trajectory for overcoming these impediments. (...) (AAS/DÜI)

Historians usually try to understand and interpret the reasons for the successful result of national movements. Less attractive seems to be the question, why the early "nationalists" took the decision to persuade the members of their ethnie to accept a new national identity, i.e., why did Phase B start? The author of this article formulated many years ago the hypothesis that this decision had to do with the identity crisis caused by great reforms and changes which put in question the old system of values and legitimacy, and eroded old pre-modern ties in patriarchal or late "feudal" societies. The article tries to check this hypothesis analyzing the turn towards Phase B in the case of Czech intellectuals (in Bohemia) at the end of the eighteenth and first decade of the nineteenth centuries, in the time of radical enlightened reforms and of the wars against the French Revolution. Loosening their old ties and traditional values, these intellectuals tried to find a new identity with their nation-to-be. The author argues that this decision was not a voluntarist mood or "nationalist" plague but that it had serious social motivation. The same can be said about the turn of the incipient Czech national movement towards language and literature. (Original abstract)