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Conclusion A Jurisprudence of Power: Victorian Empire and the Rule of Law

R. W. Kostal

in A Jurisprudence of Power: Victorian Empire and the Rule of Law

This concluding essay examines the nature and significance of the Jamaica controversy in the wider sweep of modern English political and legal history. That the Jamaica affair became so thoroughly ... More

This concluding essay examines the nature and significance of the Jamaica controversy in the wider sweep of modern English political and legal history. That the Jamaica affair became so thoroughly infused with legal ideas and procedures is a trademark of English political culture. With the advent of the Jamaica affair, leading Englishmen like John Stuart Mill attempted to use the courts to resolve (what is identified as) a defining contradiction of mid-Victorian English politics: the simultaneous commitment to law and empire. For a host of reasons their initiative failed. While the Jamaica litigation generated a number of important judicial pronouncements on the English jurisprudence of political and military power, the courts could not, perhaps cannot, provide a definitive resolution to what, after all, are timeless and intractable issues at the core of political liberalism.Less

Between co-optation and opposition: Peronism, nationalism and the politics of history, 1943–55

in Argentina's Partisan Past: Nationalism and the Politics of History

This chapter re-examines the relationship between Perónism and nationalism, focusing on the politics of history. It argues that F attempted to strike a precarious balance between the various existing ... More

This chapter re-examines the relationship between Perónism and nationalism, focusing on the politics of history. It argues that F attempted to strike a precarious balance between the various existing forms of nationalism, seizing in particular on those elements that had already become largely accepted notions and symbols of what it meant to be Argentine. The simultaneous conversion of these into Perónist symbols formed the basis of Perón's anti-pluralist claim that his movement was the only legitimate expression of national identity. At the same time, the regime sought to marginalize those who sought to use nationalism for their own political purposes.Less

New narratives for a new era? Shifts, decline and resurgence of nationalist constructions of the past since 1976

in Argentina's Partisan Past: Nationalism and the Politics of History

This chapter traces the development of Argentine nationalism and the politics of history after the coup of 1976 and up to the beginning of the presidency of Carlos Menem in 1989, ending with some ... More

This chapter traces the development of Argentine nationalism and the politics of history after the coup of 1976 and up to the beginning of the presidency of Carlos Menem in 1989, ending with some final observations about the 2000s. It argues that the history of nationalism does not fit neatly into a dichotomous opposition between, on the one hand, dictatorship and authoritarianism and, on the other, democracy and liberalism. Between 1976 and the 1990s, the history of Argentine nationalism was one of shifts and readjustments, the cumulative effect of which was that politics were increasingly fissured along lines which cross-cut the axiomatic dichotomy between ‘liberalism’ and ‘nationalism’. The erosion of this discursive opposition ultimately precipitated the decline of revisionist nationalism, although its continuing relevance has become evident in recent years.Less

Introduction

in Argentina's Partisan Past: Nationalism and the Politics of History

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the interaction between nationalism and the politics of history in twentieth-century Argentina. It focuses on the ways in ... More

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the interaction between nationalism and the politics of history in twentieth-century Argentina. It focuses on the ways in which intellectuals as well as more strictly political actors and the state have produced and used understandings of national identity by promoting, co-opting, or repressing historical narratives. The chapter also discusses the problems of existing literature on nationalism in Argentina.Less

American Exceptionalism in Crime, Punishment, and Disadvantage: Race, Federalization, and Politicization in the Perspective of Local Autonomy

Nicola Lacey and David Soskice

in American Exceptionalism in Crime and Punishment

This chapter sets a particular thesis focused on the institutional structure of the American political system within the context of a broader literature in the comparative political economy of crime ... More

This chapter sets a particular thesis focused on the institutional structure of the American political system within the context of a broader literature in the comparative political economy of crime and punishment. It then considers three possible objections to this analysis. The first argues that increasing American exceptionalism in the postwar period is to be explained primarily in terms of a distinctive history and politics of race. The next is the argument that this exceptionalism is to be attributed primarily to national policy driven by the federal government. The final argument is that American exceptionalism is driven by the interests of political elites who are relatively disconnected from the interests of their electors. Each of these objections, the chapter suggests, can be met.Less

A Holocaust Syndrome?: Relations between the Federal Republic and American Jewish Organizations in the 1980s

Jacob S. Eder

in Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970s

This chapter examines the relationship between the Kohl government and the American Jewish community during the 1980s. Helmut Kohl wanted to “normalize” West Germans’ relationship to the Nazi past. ... More

This chapter examines the relationship between the Kohl government and the American Jewish community during the 1980s. Helmut Kohl wanted to “normalize” West Germans’ relationship to the Nazi past. The unprecedented boom in American Holocaust memorial culture, however, challenged such policies, especially with regard to the image of Germany abroad. The chancellor and his closest advisors personally dealt with and reacted to these issues, and they perceived relations with American Jewish organizations as a particular challenge in this context. The chapter explores some of the most contentious episodes of German–Jewish relations during the 1980s, such as the Bitburg controversy and German plans to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, but also explores how German diplomats and politicians at home dealt with American memory of the Holocaust, as well as Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors in the United States.Less

Shifting Definitions

Alistair Fraser

in Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City

Chapter 1 elaborates the divergent trajectories of gangs in the US, England, and Scotland. The chapter identifies and analyses four clear shifts in gang research and response—street to database, ... More

Chapter 1 elaborates the divergent trajectories of gangs in the US, England, and Scotland. The chapter identifies and analyses four clear shifts in gang research and response—street to database, subcultures to crime, local to global, ethnography to dataset—that cohere in the development of an imagination of a ‘global gang’ phenomenon that is ripe for media scaremongering and political entrepreneurialism. These shifts are representative of a broader set of changes in the academic field, wherein grounded ethnographic accounts are increasingly marginalized. The chapter draws attention, crucially, to a developing seam of critical research that acts as counter-current to these increasingly homogenizing forces, making the case for a coherent theoretical and methodological agenda for advancing sociological knowledge of gangs in the UK and beyond.Less

William Petty and Political Arithmetic: The Origins of GDP

Philipp Lepenies

in The Power of a Single Number: A Political History of GDP

Describes how in the 17th century, the Englishman William Petty proposed the idea of "political arithmetic" - i.e. the notion that rulers should base their political decisions on numbers and ... More

Describes how in the 17th century, the Englishman William Petty proposed the idea of "political arithmetic" - i.e. the notion that rulers should base their political decisions on numbers and statistics; highlights how the idea of political arithmetic and national income was received and underlines, that for many centuries no government was convinced that numbers and statistic mattered.Less

The Baltic States: Successful “Return to Europe”

Katherine Graney

in Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989: Transformation and Tragedy

This chapter examines the successful “return to Europe” by the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It details how they presented European gatekeepers in the EU and NATO with expertly ... More

This chapter examines the successful “return to Europe” by the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It details how they presented European gatekeepers in the EU and NATO with expertly shaped historical and cultural-civilizational narratives that cast the Baltic states as “essentially European” states that had been “captured” by the alien Soviet Union in 1939, hence worthy of “rejoining” a European community they had been unjustly severed from. Skilled leadership and high levels of human development and national unity also helped ease the Baltic return to Europe. The chapter discusses the Baltics’ key role in pushing for an expanded understanding of Europe that would encompass other ex-Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia, while denying Europeanness to Russia, which is seen as a threat to Europe. Case studies of each of the three Baltic states detail their specific Europeanization processes since 1989.Less

The Rise and Decline of Parties

Richard S. Katz and Peter Mair

in Democracy and the Cartelization of Political Parties

When they rose to prominence in the régimes censitaires of the nineteenth century, most political parties were based primarily in parliament and had little external organization. With the advent of ... More

When they rose to prominence in the régimes censitaires of the nineteenth century, most political parties were based primarily in parliament and had little external organization. With the advent of mass suffrage, these elite parties were challenged by a new type of organization, the mass party ostensibly rooted in particular segments of society and with extensive extraparliamentary membership organizations that were, in theory, the authoritative voice of the party. By the second half of the twentieth century, both mass parties and the remaining elite parties were evolving into catch-all parties, with the party in public office more assertive of its independence and with parties increasingly working as brokers among competing interests rather than as the agents of particular interest. None of these any longer describes the nature of contemporary party politics, however.Less