The Australian aid program: dealing with poverty?

The Australian government's White Paper on aid provides a blue print for the Australian aid program for the next decade. While it ostensibly has a focus on poverty, it still sees economic growth and effective government as the path to poverty reduction. This article analyses and highlights the issues associated with this approach to poverty. These are: growing inequality and vulnerability, the rural–urban divide in poverty outcomes, and increasing social exclusion leading to increasing social and political insecurity. The article then examines the alternative policies adopted by the British aid agency, DFID, and concludes with some suggestions on how the practice of the Australian aid program can better match the goal of poverty reduction.     

The Philosophy of Historiography?

Book reviewed in this article:
Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism , by Ewa Domanska.     

The Pasteurization of Algeria?

This essay focuses on the anti–malarial campaigns of Edmondand Etienne Sergent in colonial Algeria during the period from1900 to 1930. This Pasteur Institute of Algeria was part ofan elaborate, global network of men and institutions that constitutedthe scientific empire of Third Republic France. It was deeplyindebted to the methods pioneered by Pasteur and to the sharedfoundational myth that connected the overseas Pasteur Institutesto Paris. But the Sergent brothers’ work operated withina dynamic context of international public health too. Algeria’sEuropean settlers had also worked out a creolized identity thatwas both dependent upon and distinct from metropolitan practices.Ultimately, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria bore the mark ofthe settler colonialism that had given rise to it.     

The End of Art?

This article focuses on the arguments that Arthur Danto has advanced for alleging that the developmental history of art is over. The author is skeptical of Danto's conclusion and maintains that Danto has failed to demonstrate that art history is necessarily closed. The author also contends that Danto's end-of-art thesis is better construed as a specimen of art criticism than as an example of the speculative philosophy of art history.     

The poverty of Australian defence and security studies: The ‘secure Australia project’ and its critics

Graeme Cheeseman and StJohn Kettle (eds), The New Australian Militarism: Undermining Our Future Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1990).

Gary Smith and StJohn Kettle (eds), Threats Without Enemies: Rethinking Australia's Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1992).

Peter Jennings, Searching For Insecurity: Why the ‘Secure Australia Project’ is Wrong About Defence (Current Issues, Institute of Public Affairs, June 1994).     

Mononational Germany? Multinational Switzerland? A critique of Will Kymlicka's theory of multiculturalism*

ABSTRACT. This article presents a critique of Will Kymlicka's theory of multiculturalism. It examines Kymlicka's theoretical distinction between mononational and multinational states and his empirical examples that support this theory: Germany as an example of a mononational state and Switzerland as an example of a multinational state. By means of a content analysis of constitutions, it demonstrates that Danes and Sorbs should be characterised as national minorities in Germany, whereas the French‐ and Italian‐speaking communities of Switzerland do not constitute nations. The distinction between mono‐ and multinational states proposed by Kymlicka does not hold for Germany and Switzerland, and hence must be approached anew, theoretically as well as empirically.     

Sticky words? Towards a theory of rhetorical path dependency

Speech matters. Political actors are defined by what they say as much as by what they do but, with each rhetorical choice, they also narrow the range of rhetorical options open to them for the future. This paper examines the idea of path dependency, a well-established concept in the field of policy studies, and applies it to the study of political rhetoric. It argues that words are sticky, leaving political leaders caught between the desire to utilise fresh and engaging rhetoric to explain new policy choices and the reality that they cannot shake off the wording of their previous promises. In advancing a theory of rhetorical path dependency, the paper builds on the insights of both discursive institutionalism and rhetorical political analysis to suggest that whilst ideas are indeed vital to the shaping of institutions, the arguments that give those ideas shape can themselves be constrained by earlier choices.     

The Americanisation of Europe after 1945? The Case of the German Universities

Academic discourse about America's influence on Europe constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of intercultural transfer-processes. In this context particularly the twentieth century has to be considered, because it was during this period when the decline of more than 400 years of the Europeanisation of the world ran parallel to the beginning of its Americanisation. The thesis presented here pursues an aspect of Amercanisation which has hardly been analysed: namely, the direct and indirect American influences on the German universities and academic system after the Second World War. In this case, the term Americanisation does not mean a one-sided transfer of the American higher education system, but rather a gradual merging of American influences with the German university tradition.     

The unification of archaeological sites of Athens: The birth of an archaeological park?

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing trend to present archaeological resources in the form of archaeological parks. These are an innovative way of presenting vast archaeological sites that contain a number of monuments, as a single entity, using components of the environment as interpretation features and creating an ‘invented’ integrity of the landscape. Even though the overall concept of an archaeological park emerged in Scandinavia at least three decades ago, only recently has it taken on a wider character and been applied to a variety of archaeological sites. But no clear criteria exist for them.

The current project of the Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens involves creating an archaeological park that includes most features considered essential for a park of this kind. However, the special characteristics of Athens (the over-built urban landscape, environmental pollution, and the mystical relationship between the ancient and modern cities), give the future park a rather individual character.     

The Greening of the Queensland electorate?

The Greens at the 2004 Queensland State election almost trebled their primary vote from 2001, an increase suggesting the party has already filled the vacuum left by the declining Australian Democrats as the State's principal Left-of-Centre minor party. This article argues, first, that much of this growth in support can be attributed to the substantial interstate migration to the State's southeast, a pattern that has contributed to a partial transformation of Queensland's traditional political culture to one more disposed to Green support. Second, given that this growth is set to continue, it is argued that the Queensland Greens are yet to maximise their vote. This article analyses the 2004 Queensland State election results to determine the impact of Green preferences under the State's Optional Preferential Voting (OPV) system, and to locate where geographically, and among whom demographically, Green support was strongest. A rudimentary profile of the ‘typical’ Queensland Greens voter is also offered.