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Introduction

Edward C. Page and Vincent Wright

in Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States: A Comparative Analysis of Top Officials

It is argued that existing theories and accounts of change in state bureaucracies — which centre mainly on bureaucracy and changing role perceptions — are of little help in understanding how the ... More

It is argued that existing theories and accounts of change in state bureaucracies — which centre mainly on bureaucracy and changing role perceptions — are of little help in understanding how the civil service has developed in modern political systems, and substantially neglect the implications of social and political change for the position of top officials. The aim of this book is to redress this neglect and focus directly on the changing position of senior civil servants in the modern state, and provide evidence on which to base an assessment of the changing political status of senior civil servants in Europe. This introduction starts the process by looking at what might be expected to change vis ‐à ‐vis the political status of senior officials and why, provides a basis for the 11 chapters that follow and presents a picture of substantial diversity.Less

Introduction

David Archard and Colin M. Macleod

in The Moral and Political Status of Children

In the history of philosophy, children have been seen as the property of their parents and as beings who must develop into adults. Both views provide some kind of warrant for the exercise of parental ... More

In the history of philosophy, children have been seen as the property of their parents and as beings who must develop into adults. Both views provide some kind of warrant for the exercise of parental authority. There is renewed interest today in the moral and political status of the child. The principal areas of interest are rights, autonomy and education, families, and justice.Less

Women, Religion, and Political Agency in Iran

Shahla Haeri

in Contemporary Iran: Economy, Society, Politics

This chapter analyzes the social context of the relationship between religion, state, and women in Iran since the revolution of 1979. Highlighting women's growing concern with palpable injustices in ... More

This chapter analyzes the social context of the relationship between religion, state, and women in Iran since the revolution of 1979. Highlighting women's growing concern with palpable injustices in their legal and political status and in their social relations, it discusses the apparent paradox that a robust and vibrant women's movement is in the making in the Islamic republic, not despite but because of the revival and implementation of serious legal restrictions and discriminatory political practices against their interest. It also analyzes the manner in which the development of structural incongruities and fundamental inconsistencies in the Islamic state's rhetoric and policies (whether legal/political, religious, or economical), have led to women's awakening to their legal and sociopolitical inequalities. These challenges have in turn motivated women of different backgrounds, classes, and ethnicities to mobilize and to come together to search for common grounds.Less

Juridical Equality

David Sorkin

in Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries

This chapter details how the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire constituted the central European region of emancipation. Some historians would contend that the Holy Roman Empire's “archaic, traditionalist ... More

This chapter details how the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire constituted the central European region of emancipation. Some historians would contend that the Holy Roman Empire's “archaic, traditionalist constitution created a society that tolerated religious and ethnic differences to a far greater degree than the more centralized states of Western Europe”; in other words, “early modern central Europe was a pluralistic, complex society more tolerant of differences than England, France or Spain.” Whether this observation is accurate or not, it concerns toleration, not parity. Jews in the Holy Roman Empire fell behind Jews to the east and west in their political status. They gained neither collective corporate privileges nor the civic rights of emerging civil societies. To be sure, their juridical equality in the courts of the Holy Roman Empire marked a significant elevation in status. The Court Jews' extensive individual privileges were also an elevation in status, yet only for a miniscule elite. In sum, Jews in the Holy Roman Empire did not keep pace with their brethren east and west, thus making the transition to emancipation, when it came, a painful rupture.Less

Revolution

David Sorkin

in Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries

This chapter addresses how the French Revolution's alteration of the Jews' political status was truly fundamental and ambiguous. The National Assembly's legislation did not have an unalloyed ... More

This chapter addresses how the French Revolution's alteration of the Jews' political status was truly fundamental and ambiguous. The National Assembly's legislation did not have an unalloyed revolutionary pedigree. The ancien régime persisted in the legislation of January of 1790 that granted political rights to the Jews of Bordeaux as an extension of privilege. Rights for the Jews of Alsace were deferred for twenty-one months until September of 1791 when a lame-duck assembly finally resolved the issue as a matter of constitutional integrity. Despite these ambiguities, the Revolution introduced the pattern of unconditional emancipation “out of” estates, which became a potent model for polities aiming to create a civil or bourgeois society. Through conquest and occupation over the next quarter century, France would export that model to the rest of Europe. Ultimately, the Revolution polarized Europe. Full emancipation or equal rights irrevocably became associated with the ideas of 1789. When and where those ideas triumphed, so did Jewish emancipation. When and where opponents triumphed, Jewish emancipation suffered either abridgment or outright abrogation.Less

Maghreb and Mashreq

David Sorkin

in Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries

This chapter examines how the effective end of Jewish life in the Maghreb and Mashreq constituted not only the demise of a distinctive diaspora and a major demographic shift but also the collapse of ... More

This chapter examines how the effective end of Jewish life in the Maghreb and Mashreq constituted not only the demise of a distinctive diaspora and a major demographic shift but also the collapse of a political status. For over a millennium, Jews had lived under Islam as an inferior yet protected minority. Equal citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did not prove as durable. Most Algerian Jews emigrated with the “repatriate exodus” following independence (1962). The majority of Tunisia's Jews left in the eleven years between independence (1956) and the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. Morocco had had the largest Jewish community in the Arab world; Jews fled in four waves: 1948–56, 1961–64 with free emigration, 1967, and 1973. Meanwhile, most of Egypt's Jews departed after either the 1948 war (1949–52) or Nasser's nationalist revolution (1956). The majority of Iraq's Jews emigrated in the period 1948–51; many Jews left Turkey in the period 1948–55 and after 1967, yet a substantial number remained. The twentieth century's challenges to the region, especially the rise of exclusionary nationalism during decolonization and afterward as well as its collision with Jewish nationalism, put on full display not just a minority's vulnerability but also the abiding fragility of equal rights.Less

Feminist Legal Theory and the Rights of Women

Nicola Lacey

in Gender and Human Rights

It would be a misconception to believe that legal feminism as an idea came about only in the late 20th century. Issues regarding feminist thought have for a very long time been issues of great ... More

It would be a misconception to believe that legal feminism as an idea came about only in the late 20th century. Issues regarding feminist thought have for a very long time been issues of great concern. In the context of law, modern feminist texts today encompass arguments for the rights of women and the achievement of equal political and legal status that were advocated as early as the 18th century. This chapter examines the relationship between modern campaigns and the feminist analyses of law which attempts to utilize human rights codes in obtaining equality, autonomy, and justice for women. The chapter identifies some of the different methods that have been developed within feminist legal theory such as liberalism. It also discusses various issues that are brought up within this context. The chapter also explores the feminist critiques that involve theories of political and legal rights, and investigates the models that are developed along with critical race theory that intend to provide better reconstructions of these rights.Less

Hunting Illegals

Grégoire Chamayou and Steven Rendall

in Manhunts: A Philosophical History

This chapter discusses the hunt for illegals. It begins by considering stateless people, whose legal exclusion is no longer presented as punishment for a crime, but as a status, directly connected ... More

This chapter discusses the hunt for illegals. It begins by considering stateless people, whose legal exclusion is no longer presented as punishment for a crime, but as a status, directly connected with the individuals' political status. If the stateless person is excluded from the system of legal protection it is not because he has committed an infraction: on the contrary, he is himself that infraction, by the simple fact of existing, by his sole presence on the territory of the nation-state. Making persons infractions, making their lives a permanent infraction, is thus the first characteristic of this new system of legal exclusion. The chapter then turns to a new form of legal proscription, which is distinct from that of stateless persons, a recent historical product of policies of the illegalization of migrants. This new situation of the illegality of immigrant workers is connected with states' refusal to grant them the right to reside and work legally.Less

Conclusion

Amikam Nachmani

in Turkey: Facing a New Millennium: Coping with Intertwined Conflicts

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on Turkey's involvement and handling of intertwined conflicts in the 1990s. The analysis reveals that Turkey's political and strategic status seems ... More

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on Turkey's involvement and handling of intertwined conflicts in the 1990s. The analysis reveals that Turkey's political and strategic status seems to be solid, and suggests that the country's leadership should be complimented for avoiding becoming embroiled in the conflicts around it. The chapter also analyses the prospects for Turkey in the twenty-first century and comments on its depiction in the media as a rising Middle Eastern power, emerging regional superpower and multi-regional power.Less

No Exit: Politics and Refugee Status

Ilana Feldman

in Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics

This chapter explores the definition, history, and experience of the refugee category. It considers the apparently paradoxical fact that a category that is not meant to provide political status—that ... More

This chapter explores the definition, history, and experience of the refugee category. It considers the apparently paradoxical fact that a category that is not meant to provide political status—that is intended rather to hold politics in abeyance—is a starting point for politics in the humanitarian condition. It looks at the specific challenges of the Palestinian refugee category—delineated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to determine eligibility for assistance, not to account for all who suffered losses in 1948. The chapter traces operational changes in the category over decades. It also considers how Palestinians, of multiple generations, have lived with and sometimes against the category. It describes tensions about the political meaning of refugee status.Less

Introduction

John Tobin

in The Right to Health in International Law

This introductory chapter seeks to locate the place and status of the right to health within contemporary social and political debates. A picture emerges of the right to health that is far more ... More

This introductory chapter seeks to locate the place and status of the right to health within contemporary social and political debates. A picture emerges of the right to health that is far more contested and much less central to political and social debates concerning health care than its most enthusiastic advocates would suggest. But this is a far cry from concluding that the right to health is irrelevant. On the contrary, there is no doubting that it is increasingly an unavoidable part of public health discourse. The central challenge is to move the right from the periphery to the centre of such debates, a challenge that will require far more sophisticated and hard-headed analysis on the part of lawyers, health professionals, and public policy makers. The chapter outlines the approach to be adopted in an attempt to meet this challenge.Less

How to Represent the Postwar Migration: The Liberal Establishment, the Puerto Rican Left, and the “Puerto Rican Problem”

in Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth-Century New York City

The comments about the Puerto Rican migration in the 1930s reflected the range of deficits by which Puerto Ricans were alleged to threaten white American society: biological and intellectual ... More

The comments about the Puerto Rican migration in the 1930s reflected the range of deficits by which Puerto Ricans were alleged to threaten white American society: biological and intellectual inferiority, incapacity as workers, dependency on relief, susceptibility to disease, and political gullibility. By 1947, when the postwar boom inspired a migration that nearly doubled New York's Puerto Rican population in two years, the “Puerto Rican problem” was once again popularly understood to be one created by the island's people rather than its unresolved political status. By 1957, Puerto Ricans appeared to other New Yorkers, still, to be a dangerous addition to the citizenry of the metropolis, expanding slums, exacerbating crime, overburdening the schools, flocking to the welfare office, and also, potentially, posing a continuing threat as an anti-American political force. That year, the representation of New York Puerto Ricans in West Side Story captured their identity as problematic strangers, presenting it in a political vacuum that made the colonial context of Puerto Rico disappear completely.Less

Political production of individualised subjects in the paradoxical discourse of the EU institutions

Eduardo Crespo Suárez and Amparo Serrano Pascual

in Making it personal: Individualising activation services in the EU

This chapter talks about developments found at the level of the European Union (EU). It presents a discursive analysis of a selection of policy documents of the EU that are relevant in the context of ... More

This chapter talks about developments found at the level of the European Union (EU). It presents a discursive analysis of a selection of policy documents of the EU that are relevant in the context of activation policies. One of these is the documents that were produced in the context of the Lisbon Strategy and the European Employment Strategy (EES). The chapter also considers the political status and the paradoxical rhetoric of European discourse.Less

Women’s Statuses in Plato’s Laws: Nature, Gender, Law, and the Performance of Citizenship

Marcus Folch

in The City and the Stage: Performance, Genre, and Gender in Plato's Laws

This chapter surveys the theories of gender and normative heterosexuality that subtend Plato’s understanding of the ethical capacities and civic roles appropriate for women to hold. It examines the ... More

This chapter surveys the theories of gender and normative heterosexuality that subtend Plato’s understanding of the ethical capacities and civic roles appropriate for women to hold. It examines the social and political positions available to women in Magnesia, delineating the discontinuity between Plato’s normative philosophy of gender and the practical implementation of that philosophy in the ideal city. The position of women in the Laws is limited by the retention of private property, the family, and traditional institutions of government. Against such limitations, this chapter argues that Plato nevertheless envisions a radical transformation and reformation of women’s ethical—if not legal or political—lives, that is, of their capacities to pursue and evince virtue in themselves and the city.Less

Not Bound to Any Party The Problem of Women Voters in the Solid South

Lorraine Gates Schuyler

in The Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s

This chapter discusses the political status of newly enfranchised women who directly challenged the Democratic stranglehold in the South and observes that on the eve of woman suffrage, white southern ... More

This chapter discusses the political status of newly enfranchised women who directly challenged the Democratic stranglehold in the South and observes that on the eve of woman suffrage, white southern Democrats stood in command of a political system in which few men voted and even fewer men maintained any real influence in political life. It notes that literacy tests, property requirements, poll taxes, and complicated registration and balloting procedures had prevented all but a small minority of southern men from casting ballots. The chapter observes that such tight control of the electorate had eliminated real partisan competition from nearly every corner of the South and depressed voter turnout even among those who could qualify for the franchise. It notes that after 1920, southern women worked to open up this closed system, brought new voters to the polls, and threatened to revitalize not only partisan competition in the region but intraparty competition as well.Less

Engaging in Politics

Margret Frenz

in Community, Memory, and Migration in a Globalizing World: The Goan Experience, c. 1890-1980

Chapter 5, ‘Engaging in Politics’, focuses on the involvement of Goans in public and political developments in East Africa. Some took on roles as Portuguese consuls on account of their Portuguese ... More

Chapter 5, ‘Engaging in Politics’, focuses on the involvement of Goans in public and political developments in East Africa. Some took on roles as Portuguese consuls on account of their Portuguese citizenship; others opted for British subject status. Yet others aligned their politics with the goals of Indian or East African political associations. However, political involvement was limited among members of the Goan community, especially for those who worked in the civil service, which loyalty to the colonial government. A few Goan personalities identified with the emerging nationalist movement in the 1950s and 1960s, lobbying for independence in Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda. Mostly, these were Goans of the second or third generation.Less

Animals, conflict, and politics

Jeff Sebo

in Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves: Why Animals Matter for Pandemics, Climate Change, and other Catastrophes

This chapter explores some of the difficult moral and political questions that we need to answer to make our duties to animals more concrete. How can we resolve trade-offs between human, nonhuman, ... More

This chapter explores some of the difficult moral and political questions that we need to answer to make our duties to animals more concrete. How can we resolve trade-offs between human, nonhuman, and environmental impacts? When, if ever, are invasive methods of control such as population control or genetic control acceptable in modern political society? What kind of legal and political standing should nonhuman animals have, and how should we represent their interests in political decisions? Generally speaking, to what degree should we attempt to integrate humans and nonhumans in a single political framework? This chapter argues that we can make progress on these issues by thinking about them holistically and structurally, and that we should think contextually to resolve conflicts beyond that.Less

Introduction: Injustice in a Disorienting World

Benjamin L. McKean

in Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom

The need for an orientation to the global economy is introduced by considering how an apparel consumer in the developed world should respond to the deaths of apparel workers in the Tazreen factory ... More

The need for an orientation to the global economy is introduced by considering how an apparel consumer in the developed world should respond to the deaths of apparel workers in the Tazreen factory fire and Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh. These paradigmatic global injustices are not well understood by standard egalitarian approaches to global justice. Those approaches focus on the comparative wealth of the developed world, but in doing so, they overlook the ways that the global economy is also experienced as unfair by workers there. The chapter argues instead for recognizing that many people in both Bangladesh and the United States have an interest in changing the institutions that govern the global economy. The chapter explains what a conception of orientation can do and why a range of theoretical traditions can endorse the book’s account in light of neoliberalism’s ascendance. The book’s remaining chapters are also summarized.Less

Lean Days and Uphill Battles (1976–1977)¹

in Smashing H-Block: The Rise and Fall of the Popular Campaign against Criminalization, 1976–1982

This chapter analyses the challenges in Irish political prisoners' struggle against the removal of their political status in 1976 to 1977. It explains that during this time the ‘political status’ ... More

This chapter analyses the challenges in Irish political prisoners' struggle against the removal of their political status in 1976 to 1977. It explains that during this time the ‘political status’ campaign simply was not a priority for either Sinn Féin or the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and that there were a number of significant changes that were beginning to take shape in the Republican Movement, including its reorganisation. This chapter also considers the Irish Republican Socialist Party's (IRSP) deliberation on their position on the armed campaign being waged by militant republicans.Less

Transformation to Democracy: The Struggles of Georgian Women

Medea Badashvili

in Postcommunism from Within: Social Justice, Mobilization, and Hegemony

This chapter examines the impact of transformation from communism to democracy on women's social and political status in Georgia. It identifies the factors that shaped Georgian women's experience ... More

This chapter examines the impact of transformation from communism to democracy on women's social and political status in Georgia. It identifies the factors that shaped Georgian women's experience during the first twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and demonstrates the steps taken institutionally and through women's activism to address women's marginalized status. It argues that although much progress has been made with respect to gender equality in Georgia during the first decade of the twenty-first century, much is left to do. The issue of gender equality still needs to be successfully integrated into the state's policy agenda, especially in the political and economic policy of the government, allocation of government funds, labor market regulation, social policy, and health care. The obstacles for women's full participation in public life must also be addressed.Less