The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them,Those Who Endured Them,and Why They Always Fail

The provision for Malay special privileges in the federal constitution raised considerable debate among the framers and the political community in Malaya (now Malaysia) during the drafting of the constitution in 1956–57. Article 153, which provides certain preferences to Malays in the award of business licences, scholarships and employment in the public service, was an unusual provision as it conflicted with the principle of equality enshrined in the constitution. Yet, there was general acknowledgment among the political organisations that the Malays badly needed assistance to address their economic backwardness. The dilemma the framers faced was in reconciling how these safeguards could be framed without negating the principle of equality in Article 8 and the constitutional rights of the non-Malays. Article 153 has been a source of much debate over the last 50?years. Earlier studies have not been able to examine the classified primary constitutional documents to ascertain fully the intentions of the framers. This article, drawing mainly from declassified primary constitutional documents and Alliance Party papers, analyses the evolution of the article through the various drafting stages. It shows that Article 153 was intended by the framers, particularly the Alliance Party, as a temporary and transitional provision with an unwritten understanding that there would be a review of the special privileges after independence and their discontinuance after a certain number of years.     

民主党派与抗日战争时期的民主宪政运动

民主党派在抗日战争时期参与的民主宪政运动极大地推进了抗日战争时期中国政治民主化进程,深刻影响了未来中国政治发展的走向。追求民主政治的强烈意愿是民主党派参与民主宪政运动的根本动因;国民党的独裁专制统治是其参与民主宪政运动的直接原因;国内外要求民主的强烈呼声是其参与民主宪政运动的外在动力;共产党的引领和帮助是其参与民主宪政运动的重要条件。民主党派经过民主宪政运动的历练,日渐成为中国政治舞台上一支不容忽视的力量;民主党派经过民主宪政运动的实践,对民主的理解更为深刻,对国民党蒋介石的本质认识得更加清楚;民主宪政运动是共产党与民主党派合作共事的成功实践,为革命胜利后中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度莫定了基础。     

Europe's Christian Democratic Parties and American Possibilities

In this paper, I survey the histories of Europe's Christian Democratic parties and suggest that inasmuch as they show that religiously framed party politics can have significant and positive effects on both institutions and supporters, it is difficult to see how those lessons translate straightforwardly to the American social and political order. Even if they did, making a success, both electorally and substantively, of a Christian Democratic movement in the United States would require a degree of statesmanship that certainly seems in short supply these days.     

The Democratic Party and the restructuring of the Italian party system

Abstract

Out of a quickly performed merger between the Left Democrats and the Daisy, a new party has made its appearance in Italy: the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico – PD). In the summer of 2007 three candidates, Walter Veltroni, Rosy Bindi and Enrico Letta campaigned in order to convince sympathizers and supporters of that, yet non-existing party, that they were worthy of the office of Secretary of the PD. The election of Veltroni contributed to the already existing tensions within the centre-left governmental coalition that led to the demise of Prodi's government and to early elections. In April 2008, though receiving 33 per cent of the vote, the Democratic Party suffered a serious defeat. This article explores the reasons of the defeat and analyses its consequences on the restructuring of the Italian party system and the future of the Italian political system. Unless the Democratic Party is capable of finding an adequate organizational model and of expanding its electoral support beyond the areas of the traditional entrenchment of the former Communist party, the centre-right seems destined to guide Italian politics for some time to come.     

The roots to peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo: conservation as a platform for green development

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is endowed with an abundance of natural resources, and the presence of high‐value resources such as coltan and diamonds is well known. The country is also endowed with a wealth of biodiversity, although the value of this is often overlooked. This article describes the detrimental impact of armed conflict on this biodiversity and the dangers posed by the return of peace, which is likely to result in increased biodiversity exploitation. The resulting loss of key carbon sinks crucial to the global fight against climate change will affect not only the DRC, but also the international community. Biodiversity is therefore identified as a threat to security but also a valuable asset for development, and this article discusses methods to realize the value of biodiversity in the DRC through the benefits of ecosystem services and income generated from monetizing biodiversity. It concludes by arguing that the false dichotomy of conservation and development as separate entities and objectives needs to change so that conservation becomes a central pillar of security and development work in the DRC and other regions of current or recent armed conflict around the world.     

Rebelles with a Cause: Women in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802–04

This article studies the role of white, black and mulatto women during the last two years of the Haitian War of Independence, also known as the Haitian Revolution (1802–04). It might be expected that women's contribution was limited in wartime, but this article concludes otherwise. Desirable women were sought as prizes symbolic of a man's status in colonial society, or actively used their appeal to obtain political favours. Women of colour contributed to the rebellion in the fields of logistics, espionage and even combat. They also experienced martyrdom when convicted of aiding the rebel army. White women, in turn, were considered such an integral part of the colonial order that the rebels, led by Toussaint Louverture and Jean‐Jacques Dessalines, targeted them, as well as other civilians, during the fighting, then proceeded to exterminate all surviving whites after the rebel victory.     

Territorial origins of center-seeking and self-determination claims in Africa

Why doesn't Africa have more self-determination movements? Given the prevalence of weak states, artificial borders, and high ethnic diversity, one might expect that the majority of African rebel groups would pursue self-determination outcomes. Yet, the data indicate that most rebel groups have attempted to capture the state in center-seeking conflicts rather than to break off a piece of it. Why? In this study, we argue that the exogenously determined territorial size of the country in which new groups emerge shapes whether groups pursue center-seeking or self-determination outcomes. We argue that the size of the territory determines the overall cohesion of the state, which then shapes the political imagination of the group, affecting how an emerging rebel group conceives of itself and its constituents relative to the state. We also argue that the size of the territory shapes the perceived feasibility of either center-seeking or self-determination outcomes. Drawing from a recent dataset on rebel group emergence, we find support that rebel groups emerging in large states are more likely to seek self-determination than rebel groups in small states. We test multiple alternative arguments and find that our results are robust to them as well as additional testing specifications.     

Greed and grievance in civil war

While economic agendas have been shown to be an important factor in shaping civil wars, there are several problems with prominent explanations centring on rebel ‘greed’, notably those put forward by Paul Collier. Among these are: the way proxies for ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ have been used; the lack of attention to links between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’; and the lack of attention to ‘greed’ among elements associated with counter‐insurgencies. Why has Collier's analysis proven so popular, despite its flaws? I suggest that it represents an attractive over‐simplification with a scientific aura. It achieves a degree of simplicity by excluding many of the most important features of civil wars, even to the extent of asserting that there is no point in asking rebels about their motivations. Furthermore, it is often politically convenient in that it tends to exclude a number of western governments—and (sometimes favoured) governments in poorer countries—from serious scrutiny. By contrast, the emphasis placed by Frances Stewart and her associates on the role of economic and political inequalities between groups offers a more nuanced understanding of how civil wars are caused and shaped, an understanding that is better able to take account of the nature of grievances and of the role of abusive government‐affiliated actors in generating grievances.     

Mexico's stalled peace process: prospects and challenges

High hopes were raised when Vicente Fox Quesada of the National Action Party (PAN) was elected President of Mexico in July 2000. After three years of inaction, the possibility that the nation's stalled peace process might once again recommence suddenly seemed plausible. With the announcement in December 2000 by the rebel Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) of three preconditions prior to any dialogue taking place, a clear trajectory was set. Four months later, however, all contact with the rebels had been broken and once again Mexico's peace process was in jeopardy. This article recounts the brief history of talks to date and explains how the current impasse has been reached. Identifying both prospects and challenges for any future peace deal, the author calls for greater international vigilance and understanding of a conflict with significant political and ethical implications.     

Collaboration or obstruction? Rebel group behavior during natural disaster relief in the Philippines

Under what conditions do rebel groups collaborate with the government in disaster relief operations? Despite the fact that many natural disasters occur in armed conflict contexts, little is known about the impact of conflict actors on natural disaster relief efforts. Affected by the same typhoon, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the New People's Army (NPA) behaved differently in the aftermath of the natural disaster. While the MILF collaborated with the government in relief efforts, the NPA did not. This article explains this variation by arguing that the level of hostility between the rebel group and the state in the pre-disaster period as well as the type of social contract that exists between the rebels and the local population shape collaboration during natural disaster relief efforts. The theoretical argument is explored through a comparative case study between these two rebel groups in the aftermath of a devastating typhoon in the Philippines in 2012.     

The silent encroachment of the frontier: A politics of transborder trade in the Semliki Valley (Congo–Uganda)

This article is about the frontier as a political place. Through a discussion of unofficial cross-border trade in the Semliki Valley (on the Congo–Ugandan border), it describes how people, despite the ruining effects of delocalization and state privatization, continue to reproduce their life worlds as places, which eventually makes them the matrix of new political constellations. This silent encroachment of the Congo–Ugandan frontier is marked in turn by a prolonged silent, and at occasions loud, advancement on existing power configurations that profoundly questions ruling modes of classification and standards of evaluation. In the article, this encroachment is illustrated mainly with regard to the imposition of tax and the control over people's mobility—both a quintessence of (post)modern state building. At the end of the day, the analysis of meanings and processes attached to this everyday life on the Congolese–Ugandan border illustrate quite clearly how people, notwithstanding the structural and technological forms that direct and mould their world, can also progressively challenge conventional notions of political and economic power, and simultaneously introduce new notions of where politics is to be found and what it is. It is probably this ambiguous role, of hidden smugglers with open official ties, of “rebel” entrepreneurs seeking high political protection, that sustains the transformation of politics at the Semliki border crossing. Contrary to previous wisdom however, such emerging regulatory authorities do not operate against the state, but are rather involved in different scales of political decision-making—particularly in the domain of cross-border taxation. Without demolishing the question of its power, such processes can eventually introduce a reconfiguration of post-colonial statehood that combines different and apparently contradictory legal orders and cultures, but which simultaneously give rise to new forms of meaning and action.     

Heart of darkness reinvented? A tale of ex‐soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article presents the contemporary case of two Norwegian ex‐soldiers sentenced to death for murder, espionage and mercenary activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It analyses the wider context of the historical roots of Norwegian engagement in the Congo (now DRC) as well as the mass‐mediated discourses centring around the tropes of a Conradian ‘Heart of darkness’. Further, using the insights of Johannes Fabian's seminal work on exploration, ethnography and representation (2000), it argues that contemporary Norwegian discourses on the Congo are steeped in the tradition of travelogues. Secondly, also drawing on Fabian, it argues that by representing the DRC as a topos ‐ a space without a place ‐ these discourses uncritically reproduce notions of decontextualised radical alterity.     

In the Eye of the Storm: Sri Lanka's Front‐Line Civil Servants in Transition

This article narrates how bureaucrats in eastern Sri Lanka operated during and after the war. They managed to keep minimal state services running whilst being locked between the government and the insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). When the government defeated the LTTE in 2009, civil servants were freed from rebel coercion, but they also lost their counterweight against unappreciated policies from the capital and interference by local politicians. The article links the thinking on armed conflicts with the literature that conceptualizes ‘the state’ not as a coherent entity, but as a subject of continuous negotiation. The state's insigne provides a sense of legitimacy and supremacy, but governments have no monopoly on using it. Other powerful actors capture state institutions, resources and discourse for contradictory purposes. This perspective helps us reconcile the appearance of bureaucratic order with the peculiar and hybrid forms of rule that emerged in the war between rebels and government, and it sheds light on some of the surprising changes and continuities that occurred when that war ended. Public administration is neither just a victim of war, nor plainly a victor of the post‐war situation.     

The Swedish journal Morgonbris on political violence in Finland 1917–1918

Women participated actively in the Finnish Civil War in January 1918–April 1918. The radicalization of the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the embracing of a revolutionary discourse sent tremors also to Sweden. In this article, I investigate how the Swedish Social Democratic women’s journal Morgonbris addresses women’s political violence in the period surrounding the Russian Revolution in March 1917, the October 1917 Bolshevik takeover and the following Civil War in Finland early 1918.

Morgonbris did not shun from reporting or debating women’s political violence, however, as this article shows there is a great discrepancy between how different acts of violence are understood in the greater discourse. Some violence, and especially some acts of violence committed by women, is clearly framed as more legitimate than others.     

Infrastructures of trust and distrust: The politics and ethics of emerging cryptographic technologies

The authors of this article are engaged in anthropological research on the links between the growing interest in privacy and data security as a technical field and how notions of trust, security and accountability are practised in and beyond technical fields of cryptography, specifically a field called multi-party computation (MPC). They pursue the relationship between trust in different forms of cryptography – academic and activist – and notions of trust as they are articulated in relation to data security and the protection of citizens’ data. There is a tension between the concerns raised in public debates about data security and the promises of emerging cryptographic protocols. In political speeches and public debates, citizens’ trust that governments and tech companies will protect their data is framed as important and essential. In the environments of emerging cryptographic technologies, such as blockchains, bitcoin and MPC, a promise to provide ‘trustless trust’ and abandon the need for trusted intermediaries, authorities and institutions is articulated.     

The Democratic Islamic Republic of Iran in Exile

This paper examines the political, organizational, and ideological shifts necessitated by the chief Iranian oppositional group, the progressive Islamist Mojahedin-e Khalq (People's Mojahedin) organization, beginning with its exile from the Islamic Republic starting in June of 1981 through the present day. An analysis of these shifts is presented as a chronological series of evolving relationships including the Mojahedin's collaboration with a broad-base of oppositional groups and individuals during its Paris exile and founding of the National Council of Resistance (NCR); the Mojahedin's relocation to Baghdad and subsequent foundation of the National Liberation Army (NLA); and the Mojahedin's courtship of Western governments and international organizations to promote its cause. Following the depiction of the transformations undertaken by the Mojahedin throughout these three phases is an analysis of both the status of the organization as a result of these changes and an assessment of the price of exile.     

Simon de Montfort,Earl of Leicester,and the utility of sanctity in thirteenth-century England

Almost immediately after his death, Simon de Montfort, the leader of the Barons' Revolt against Henry III, was revered as a saint. Despite the received historical opinion that his cult was local, furtive, and brief, it actually received support throughout England, from the noble and clerical ranks as well as from the peasantry, and lasted into the reign of Edward I. The manifestations of Earl Simon's cult reveal that his revolt was popular as well as noble, that even illegal cults could be profitable for their home shrines, in this case the abbey of Evesham, and that sanctifying a rebel leader was an effective way of justifying both the continuation of a revolt and sympathy for the defeated rebels, in this case the Disinherited. On the hagiographical level, Montfort's cult shows the incredibly rich diversity of expression of devotion in medieval cults, and the more practical concerns with advertisement and profit. On the political level, the cult proves once again that the king did not control all means of political discourse. The merger of political and religious authority, the importance of which has been often demonstrated in studies of the king's touch and the laudes ceremonials, affected rebel leaders as well as kings.     

Social Policy and Political Mobilization in India: Producing Hierarchical Fraternity and Polarized Differences

This article attempts to decode the ways in which social policy that has essentially developmental and welfare imperatives is being used to pursue an exclusivist-authoritarian right-wing agenda in India under Narendra Modi. The authors highlight a contradistinction between the previous United Progressive Alliance regime led by the Congress Party and the current National Democratic Alliance regime led by the BJP to show the shift in the understanding and the role of social policy. In essence, social programmes have been combined with market-oriented reforms, undoing the entitlements-based approach to social policies of the previous regime. The authors then go on to discuss a variety of social policy programmes introduced by the Modi government with a focus on public health and sanitation objectives, but also including gender empowerment imperatives, education, training and employment programmes for socially marginalized groups.     

Lega democratica and the making of Italy’s center-left

This article analyzes the history of the Lega democratica, a group of Catholic intellectuals active between 1975 and 1987, and its impact on Catholic debates in Italy’s Second Republic. Despite its small membership, the group’s heritage influenced Italy’s post-1994 center-left and shaped its leadership. Such relevance is explained by describing the Lega democratica’s legacy on four issues. First, on Catholic pluralism: the group was central to a decade-long failed attempt to reconcile different souls of the Italian Catholic laity, which anticipated the end of the Christian Democratic party. Second, after Aldo Moro’s murder the Lega democratica theorized the impossibility of a ‘historic compromise’ between Communists and Christian Democrats: such a development framed their post-1994 attitude. Third, the group’s history reveals a growing generational split on how to achieve political reform (mediation vs. rupture). Finally, the emerging idea of a ‘primacy of civil society’ in the political sphere partly defined the Ulivo coalition’s ideology.