Research on the post‐communist world: An overview and an Agenda

The collapse of communism has left many specialists on the former communist world depressed and pessimistic about their own future role. This article starts by identifying five major reasons for depression—the problem of the ‘fellow‐traveller'; ‘redundant’ research; unfamiliar instability; the marginalised ‘go‐between'; non‐prediction. Counterarguments to—alternative perceptions on—each of these is then provided. In the concluding section, I propose a nine‐point agenda for research, and argue that, in some ways, the outlook has never been more challenging or exciting.     

Lying and deception in the Biblical and post‐Biblical Judaic tradition

Abstract

A great variety of cuneiform texts have been found within the precincts of the high priest's building complex in ancient Ugarit. Some of the texts are letters, others are lexical texts and others again are ritual texts. The great epics of aqht and krt are best described as literary texts. Some of the texts, however, do not unambiguously belong to one group only: Some scholars would construe the Baal‐cycle as a ritual text or at least a text somehow connected with the cult performed in the temples; others would describe the Baal‐cycle as pure literature. Similarly the enigmatic text about Shachar and Shalim (abbreviated SS) apparently contains cultic and literary elements. Is this text then a cult‐text or a piece of literature? The aim of the article is to investigate if from the archaeological evidence we can add an argument to the on‐going debate about the Sitz im Leben of the Ugaritic Baal‐cycle: Were the clay tablets in the high priest's building distributed according to their content? The answer seems to be yes. The Baal‐cycle was in fact stored with other literary texts in the high priest's building whereas SS has been kept in the room of the ritual texts. This fact might give us a hint as to how to interpret these two texts.     

Supply‐side politics: Circumventing the claims of justice

As Hume says, questions of distributive justice only arise under conditions of moderate scarcity. That in turn suggests that increasing (or proposing or promising or pretending to increase) the supply of goods may be an effective way of circumventing claims of justice. Politicians have not been blind to these possibilities. Attempts at supply‐side solutions to distributional problems are very common indeed across a wide range of policy areas. Having demonstrated that I shall then critique such solutions, showing all the fallacies that may embody. My conclusion is that, while increasing supply might sometimes be an acceptable method of resolving distributional problems, there is a variety of arguably common circumstances in which such strategies are wildly inappropriate.     

Multi‐member electorates and the development of Australian party politics

Australian political scientists have paid little attention to voting in multi‐member electorates apart from the working of Proportional Representation in Tasmania and the Senate. Yet the existence of such electorates and the methods of voting therein probably helped Labor parties gain their first representation in the colonial parliaments.

The strength of their organisations meant that those parties often fared well in the state‐wide electorates for the Senate after federation. From 1902 the prohibition of plumping in Senate elections fostered ticket voting. It not only introduced the first coercive element into the electoral system, but, by establishing a ‘winner‐take‐all’ method of voting, encouraged a two‐party system at federal level.     

Italy and the politics of European defence: playing by the logic of multi‐level networks

The article looks at the role of Italy in the decision‐making arena of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), analysing the initiatives it put in place to address and influence the construction of a common defence. The article aims to explain the ability or inability of Italy to build up a consensus around its proposals. By studying two initiatives in the field of European defence and security, it seeks to determine the factors which resulted in the differing outcomes of Italian actions at the European level.     

Space agents: anti‐racist feminism and the politics of scale in Turin,Italy

This article discusses racialized politics among women in Turin, Italy, utilizing and expanding Neil Smith's concept of the spatial politics of scale specifically in relation to an anti‐racist organization, Alma Mater, that emerged during the early 1990s. International migration is relatively recent in Italy, and popular responses over the past decade have been both supportive and hostile. Overt and implicit expressions of racism and intolerance toward migrants have become apparent throughout the country. Migrant and Italian women have retaliated by engaging in a politics of space and scale to effect local and national labor and cultural practices. Through an examination of every day cultural–ideological practices and their links to broad political and economic processes I examine the relative success of Alma Mater in its ability to challenge scales and add to an understanding of the social production and reproduction of power relations at all scales.     

Intimate citizenship? Rethinking the politics and experience of citizenship as emotional in Wales and Singapore

Conversations around, and conceptions of, citizenship have changed over time. Assumed initially as a mark of membership, of belonging to a political community (Marshall 1950), the essence of what it means to be a citizen and what the contractual ties of citizenship are have evolved over time. This evolution has been encouraged by processes of migration and increasing mobility. More recently, our ability to traverse geographical and political boundaries has meant that notions of borders and boundaries, of who belongs where and why, have also been subject to dramatic changes. This article investigates the impact of such mobility on the individual lived experience of migrant women who, as a group, have been traditionally excluded from more formal political arenas, and asks questions of what citizenship means for them. Though I do not contest the very political fact of citizenship as status, this article challenges the way in which the nature of this status is assumed or implied for all. This article therefore argues that citizenship itself is a much more fluid concept, incorporating the emotional and lived experience of individuals and that it is in these emotional accounts through which citizenship, and its extended rights and political capabilities, must be understood through a sense of everyday, grounded and personal politics.     

‘Oro‐dedicated Maro ‘Ura in Tahiti: Their rise and decline in the early post‐European contact period

Abstract

This paper is an examination of the significance of man ‘ura, or feather girdles, in Tahiti in the years immediately following European contact. It examines their relationship to ‘Oro, the Tahitian god of war, and their significance for tribal politics in Tahiti. The most significant man ‘ura in this period were those which had their origin at the Opoa marae in Ra'iatea, as it is said that it was here that ‘Oro was bom. Attempts by highly‐ranked ari'i to possess such man ‘ura, as well as an image of ‘Oro which usually travelled together with the man, fuelled a number of inter‐tribal conflicts in the period under study. However, as the worship of ‘Oro intensified, and the Pomares gained ascendancy, references to man ‘ura are no longer present in the sources.