Democratisation and the British Empire

ABSTRACT

This article responds to the statistically established finding in democratisation studies that British rule seems to have been good for the survival of democracy in its former empire, and that the longer a nation spent under British rule, the likelier it is to have sustained democracy since independence. This is a finding which puzzles political scientists because they think of democracy and empire as opposites. The article considers the uses made of democratic innovation by the British and the responses anti-colonial nationalists made to the offer to ‘lead them to democracy’. It places democracy and empire in a different, more complex relationship. It also considers the contribution of anti-colonial protest to the working of democracy.     

Ecomuseums and the Democratisation of Japanese Museology

The idea of the ‘integrated museum’, a more socially inclusive form of cultural institution, was a key outcome from the UNESCO/ICOM ‘Round Table of Santiago’ in 1972. Many of the concepts embodied in this idea became part of ecomuseum philosophy and practice during the 1970s and 1980s, in particular the need to involve local communities and make museums more democratic. The ecomuseum has the potential to be a socially inclusive mechanism and is now a worldwide phenomenon. Many of its tenets (the museum as territory, fragmented sites, in situ conservation and community leadership) are used—in a variety of ways and with varying success—as a mechanism to conserve cultural and heritage resources and to construct and promote local or regional cultural identities. Although the philosophy and practice of ecomuseums has been subject to criticism, they are still being created, mainly in rural areas, as a means of conserving traditional landscapes and ways of life. Japan has embraced the ecomuseum philosophy, and three contrasting ecomuseums (Hirano, Asahi and Miura) are described here, their roles analysed and their democratic nature questioned. It appears that the ecomuseum does have the ability to be a truly democratic method of heritage conservation, but that ultimately much depends on leadership and the identification of the local community as the key stakeholder.     

Accountability,Democratisation and the Right to Information in India

ABSTRACT

Accountability is a core democratic value. It envisages that citizens hold the powerful to account for omissions and commissions. Influenced by the global agenda for good governance, the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India was designed to build accountability through transparency. RTI is primarily a result of democratic politics. It emerged from intense grassroots activism – articulating poor and ordinary citizens’ discontent over corruption and other abuses of power. This study is based on six empirical cases of RTI usage in India’s West Bengal province. I argue that even though it is primarily designed to elicit accountability, RTI has emerged as a “seed right” because of its enabling, foundational and evolving dimensions push forward the process of democratisation. When operating individually, our respondents experienced negligible empowerment, but when the relatively powerless citizens organised collectively and were able to work through political institutions such as political parties and CSOs/NGOs, they could convincingly bargain with the powerholders, and elicit some cooperation, if not accountability.     

Democratisation and Ethnic Conflict: The Kin Connection

Abstract. This article posits that individuation is a determining factor in making democratisation efforts workable or, where it is absent, ethnic conflict likely. Somalia serves as a case study. Since the Somali state has not been able to secure individuals' social welfare or their futures, citizens use genealogies, which chart trustworthiness, to construct social welfare safety-nets. There is also a moral dimension to genealogy. This is quite different from what occurs in the democratic West, where the state has guaranteed individuals a significant measure of social welfare security over time, and where identity can be considered situational. I argue that under conditions of uncertainty, such as have existed in Somalia, identity is not at all situational, but is fixed and fixes individuals in ethnic groups. The push to democratise can then lead to armed ethnic conflict.     

The Palestinian Uprising,Bread Riots and Arab Democratisation

In most theoretical treatments civil strife and domestic political conflict are interpreted as deconstructive and negative, as exemplified by Gurr 1980, p. 239 . Yet no messengers from Christ to Muhammad , no leaders from Bolivar to Gandhi , and no revolutionaries from Lenin to Mao to Mandela ushered in new orders and ideas without conflict. Whether viewed diachronically or synchronically, humankind's history is the history of conflict. However, domestic conflict is neither always negative, as Dixon and Moon 1989 have shown, nor does it always have only short-term effects, as Bienen and Gersovitz 1986 have assumed. There is ample historical evidence for this in the aforementioned cases. Against the backdrop of domestic conflict these historical figures effected positive and lasting changes. Hence the chief postulate of this essay: domestic political conflict, despite the 'inherent plausibility' of its harmfulness, presents opportunities for positive change with long-term effects. This position is tested using examples of Arab bread riots and the spill-over effect of the Palestinian intifadah uprising . Support for this position is found in the context of the recent wave of Arab democratisations. Although generally guided and controlled, Arab political liberalisations especially that of Sudan, Algeria and Jordan have their roots in pressure from below. Elsewhere as in Tunisia and Egypt , similar pressure helped consolidate, or, at least, place political reform on the agenda of delegitimised ruling elites. When compared with other regions, the Arab Middle East AME can readily be shown to have advanced on the road to democracy, even if such a democracy is yet to presage polyarchal rule. Democracy and democratisation in the AME have almost invariably meant a trend towards 'parliamentariasation' and 'electoralisation'. Between 1985 and 1996 the AME has experienced no less than seventeen multi-party elections, twice more than the entire preceding period since the early 1960s when many Arab countries won independence from colonial rule. While renderings of Arab democracy tend to be either 'exceptionalist' projecting pessimistic scenarios or euphoric equating democracy with the number of polls , they fail to consider the role of domestic political violence in the rise of Arab electoral activities, a vacuum area taken up by this essay.     

Democratisation: Antidemocratic and democratic elements in the political culture of China

The nature of the political culture itself is often seen by commentators as the cause of democracy failing to take root in China; the antidemocratic elements of that culture being overemphasised while the democratic elements are underemphasised. This paper examines the application of the ideas of democratic culture in China to the current state of play, including the possibility of the democratic card being played by factions within the Chinese Communist Parry (CCP). There are indeed cultural problems associated with Chinese democratisation such as cultural anomie, unconscious authoritarian personalities, the legacy of egalitarianism, the radical polarisation of Chinese culture, difficulties of institutional compromise and the irrational control of aggression and fear. While the antidemocratic culture is stronger at present than the democratic culture, the new Chinese democratic culture is likely to gather strength in the future.     

Revolutionary versus Reactionary: Contrasting Portuguese and Spanish Civil-Military Relations during Democratisation

The military is an important factor for the success or failure of democratisation processes. Portugal and Spain provide two paradigmatic cases. Despite their socio-economic, political and cultural similarities, these countries developed very different civil-military relations which significantly impacted their transitions. After having handed power over to a civilian dictator, Salazar, the Portuguese military eventually caused the downfall of his authoritarian Estado Novo regime and steered the transition to democracy. In contrast, the Spanish military, which had helped Franco defeat the Second Republic, remained loyal to the dictator’s principles and, after his death, obstructed the democratisation process. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, this interdisciplinary article contrasts the challenges posed by the military and the policies implemented by the Iberian governments to depoliticise and control it. It shows that the failed coups d’état in these countries helped tighten civilian control and paved the way for democratic consolidation. Using a policy instruments comparative framework, this paper demonstrates that not only the attitudes of the military but also the tools used to keep them under control were substantially different in Portugal and Spain. Historical legacies from the Spanish Civil War, Second World War and Colonial conflicts, as well as contextual factors, serve to explain this variation.     

浓厚的泰国色彩

这几年东南亚风味很流行,三不五时有人张罗着去东南亚餐厅。当问及东南亚菜的代表——泰国美食时,有人回答只知道冬阴功汤,有人回答色彩浓重,甚少有人了解泰国美食。除了著名的冬阴功汤,泰国还有很多美食值得期待。本期食色,带大家一起尝尝熟悉而又陌生的泰国美食。     

过节怎可缺少大餐?

对全世界的华人来说,没有什么节日会比正月里的春节来得更惦记了。岁末辞旧迎新,吃团圆饭,成为这个节日必不可少的事情。大年夜.丰盛的年菜摆满一桌,合家团聚,围坐桌旁,共吃团圆饭,心头的充实感真是难以言喻。过年过年,过的可是一年,单单一顿年夜饭,怎够这节日的气氛呢？趁着过节的气氛犒赏自己犒赏亲朋好友,既是享受满桌的佳肴盛馔,也是享受那份快乐的气氛。     

Hedwig revisited

The mainstream success of the 2014 Broadway revival of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch is in stark contrast to the precarity of the central protagonist’s life and the communities out of which the original Hedwig production emerged. While these tensions reveal some of the complicities between homonormativity, gentrification, and neoliberalism, by tracing Hedwig’s other genealogies, a more complicated vision of queer possibility emerges.     

实拍清迈水灯节

正我在网上看到了与泰国水灯节相关的照片,迷醉其中,加上"清迈"这个被众多好友提及的名字,当天晚上就买了北京往返曼谷的机票,加上期间七七八八的事情,也没有太多准备,这好像是我有史以来最"冲动"的一次旅行了。泰国水灯节作为世界上最浪漫的节日之一,不仅有一个美妙的名字,也有着很多美好的传说。800多年前泰国的第一个王朝——素可泰王朝,每年泰历十二月十五日月圆时节,居民都聚集     

泰国北部的云南人

身分尴尬的流亡者 同是生活在泰国的中国移民,可他们不像近百年来从福建、潮州、客家及海南等地由海路到泰国的华人和其后代那样,生活在曼谷等城市,跻身于商业、财经、工业等领域,与泰人一样有机会进入上流社会.在潮客系华人眼中,他们是北部山区土气的乡下人;在泰人眼中,他们是北部山区的山地民族.他们被称为"钦贺",意思是从陆路来到泰国北部的云南人,但他们又有别于真正意义上的"钦贺"-那些清末以来经商跑马帮来到泰国北部的云南回族.     

Islamism revisited

While contemporary Islamism is a response to the domestic political situation in many Muslim countries, as well as to US and western policies in the Muslim world, it is also about religious assertion and the forging of an alternative ideology, not only as a means of empowerment but also as a means of establishing a particular social order. The debate is as much an internal one as it is a global one and in many ways mirrors the struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for political and cultural independence.     

推荐地之二：在那桃花盛开的地方——桐庐阳山畈

山花烂漫时节最适合踏青旅游了。若在三四月间路过桐庐的一个村庄,坐落于桃花之中,男女老少皆人面桃花,怡然自得。不用问,一定是到了横村镇阳山畈。     

北邙难归泰北魂

北魂 中国人不管到哪里,都忘不掉自己的老家,连在泰北也是."浩浩海天扬正气,巍巍泰岳祀忠魂",就是泰北唐窝忠烈祠的对联.这泰岳当然不是故国中原的泰山,它指的就是这个在泰国边区荒榛蔓草间,嵌然突兀的山头.