Red Vienna and municipal socialism in Tel Aviv 1925–1928

Urban development and the formation of urban social landscapes are not simply the outcome of market forces and localised political decisions. Social ideologies constituted major factors in city development and the formation of urban society in both Vienna and Tel-Aviv. The model of municipal socialism practiced in Vienna, based on an egalitarian, progressive, allocation of municipal services, left a deep impression in Vienna's urban landscape. The duplication of this model in Tel-Aviv of the 1920s resulted from an attempt at viewing the city in Palestine as being part of the formation of the pioneering settlement map. The application of the model to Tel-Aviv was not overtly successful, partly because of the lack of support shown by the Mandate Administration and legal system for Palestine's workers, and partly because of the weakness of the worker's urban movement.     

Russia's Europe, 1991–2016: inferiority to superiority

Russia defines itself as a Great Power in relation to Europe and the West. The first part of the article traces how, since 1991, a story about greatness centred on being part of contemporary European civilization has given way to a story of how Russia is great by being superior to a Europe that is now seen as rotten and decadent. The former story spelled cooperation with Europe and the West, where the latter spells confrontation. The second part argues that Russia's superiority complex is unsustainable. It is hard to see how, in the face of the formative structural pressure of the state system, Russia will be able to sustain its superiority complex. A state that does not order itself in such a way that it may either gain recognition as a Great Power by forcing its way and/or by being emulated by others, is unlikely to maintain that status. The costs of maintaining Great‐Power status without radical political and economic change seem to be increasing rapidly. If Russia wants to maintain its status, an about‐turn is needed. Such a turn may in itself be no solution, though, for if Russia does not do anything about the root causes of its perceived inferiority to Europe, then the Russian cyclical shifting from a Westernizing to a xenophobic stance will not be broken.