In search of policy makers

Hylda A. Rolfe, The Controllers: Interlocking Directorates in Large Australian Companies, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne 1967, pp. xvii + 126, $2.95 (paperbound).     

Italy as a negotiator in the EU equal opportunities policy process

The creation of both a Ministry and a Department for equal opportunities has been Italy's main institutional response to EU pressures in the field of equal opportunities policy. Nevertheless, the impact of Italian negotiators in the EU depends not only on the institutional resources available to them, but also on the political credibility acquired by presenting well‐defined and clear preferences during the bargaining process in the Council. This article considers how the Italian position was presented, and how successful it was, in two recently approved Directives, one decided by qualified majority vote, the other on a basis of unanimity. The aim of the analysis is to assess Italy's capacity to influence EU social affairs. Information was gathered by conducting qualitative interviews with the main political actors involved in the decision‐making process at the national and European levels.     

Australian foreign policy in political time: middle power creativity,misplaced friendships,and crises of leadership

Over the past century, Australian foreign policy orders have been stabilised by the construction of ideas that have reduced uncertainty regarding national interests. Yet, such ideas have often evolved in ways that have engendered misplaced certainty, renewed instability, and crisis. To explain such shifts, I highlight the role of an Australian ‘pragmatic liberal tradition’, one which has enabled alternating tendencies to principled stability or technocratic hubris. In a tripartite model, I trace stages over initial ‘middle power’ efforts to construct ideas that lead states—and particularly great powers—to identify interests in cooperation, misplaced certainty in great power ties which obscures new challenges, and the construction of crises that impede or enable change. Empirically, I apply this framework to the construction, conversion, and crises of the ongoing ‘Reform order’. These span the initial Hawke-era middle power integration of US and regional ties, Howard-era misplaced certainty in US-styled neoconservative bandwagoning and neoliberal macroeconomic accommodation, and evolving constructions of the War on Terror and Global Financial Crisis. In the conclusion, I address theoretical and policy implications, highlighting the initial challenges that crises can pose for middle power leadership, and the subsequent scope for creativity.     

Setting the rules: private power,political underpinnings,and legitimacy in global monetary and financial governance

The role of private market agents in global monetary and financial governance has increased as globalization has proceeded. This shift in both markets and patterns of governance has often been encouraged by states themselves in pursuit of liberalization policies. Much of the literature views these developments in a positive light, yet there are other aspects of these developments that also merit attention. This article supports its central propositions with two cases of emerging global financial governance processes: the Basel II capital adequacy standards for international banking supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions‐based transnational regulatory processes underpinning the functioning of cross‐border securities markets. Based on the case findings, the article argues first that private sector self‐regulation and/or public‐private partnership in governance processes can leave public authorities vulnerable to dependence on the information and expertise provided by private agents in a fast‐moving market environment. Policy in the vital domain of financial regulation has been increasingly aligned to private sector preferences to a degree that should raise fears of bureaucratic capture. Second, the article contends that the overall outcome in terms of global financial system efficiency and stability has been mixed, bringing a range of important benefits but also instability and crisis for many societies to a degree that has led to challenges to global governance itself. The case material indicates that the input, output and accountability phases of legitimacy in global monetary and financial governance are highly problematic, and much of the problem relates to the way in which private market agents are integrated into the decision‐making process. Third, the article posits that a better consideration of these three ‘phases’ of legitimacy and their interrelationships is likely to enhance the political underpinnings and legitimacy of global financial and monetary order.     

EU media policy and/as cultural policy: economic and cultural tensions in MEDIA 2007

This article is an examination of the cultural and economic tensions that arise in the formulation and implementation of media policy in the European Union. Through an analysis of the MEDIA 2007 MEDIA Desk Germany. 2007. Interview with Aviva Silver, head of the MEDIA Programme, European Commission carried out by MEDIA Desk Germany in preparation of the Programme launch at Berlinale 2007 [online] Available from: http://www.mediadesk.co.uk/usr/images/news_images/interview_with_aviva_on_media_2007.doc [Accessed 17 May 2010] [Google Scholar] program, the authors investigate how the priorities of cultural policy and media policy interact and conflict. EU policy goals from the mid‐2000s onwards have emphasized attention to the economic potential of the creative and cultural industries, which complicates the cultural potential of audiovisual media. MEDIA 2007 MEDIA Desk Germany. 2007. Interview with Aviva Silver, head of the MEDIA Programme, European Commission carried out by MEDIA Desk Germany in preparation of the Programme launch at Berlinale 2007 [online] Available from: http://www.mediadesk.co.uk/usr/images/news_images/interview_with_aviva_on_media_2007.doc [Accessed 17 May 2010] [Google Scholar] in particular demonstrates these tensions, as the design of this policy mechanism emphasized audiovisual media’s potential for European economic growth as a precondition for achieving cultural objectives.     

In search of a Byzantine narrative canon: the Vita Basilii as an uncanonical work

Abstract

The problem of the literary genre of Vita Basilii and, by extension, of the lack of Byzantine examples of purely secular biography is one of the most well known literary controversies of Byzantine studies. With respect to this problem a revision of the usual parameters involved in the definition of literary genres will be suggested, one which will cover not only formal aspects but also contextual and functional ones. This study will propose that the features related to these parameters could be classified as more or less prototypical, thus laying the foundation for an approach to canonical narrative patterns and enabling further progress in our understanding of this unique work.     

‘In aid of civil power’: The colonial army in Northern India,c.1919–42

India's tribal northeast continues to be a footnote in national and international historiography. Influenced by James C. Scott's recent characterisation of the non-state hill peoples of Zomia and their deliberate evasion of subject status, this article reappraises the 1826 treaty between the British political agent and Khasi leader U Tirot Sing, and the subsequent Nongkhlaw massacre. It further explores a set of British expectations of the hills as a potential site for missionisation and white colonisation. In this way, it asserts the purchase of Scott's theories, but argues for the further potential of micro-history and the colonial archive to render indigenous histories more visible.     

Anthropology and alcohol: In search of a new paradigm

Jerrold E. Levy and Stephen J. Kunitz. Indian Drinking: Navajo Practices and Anglo‐American Theories. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974. xii + 257 pp. Tables, notes, appendices, bibliography, and index. $12.50.

William Madsen. The American Alcoholic: The Nature‐Nurture Controversy in Alcoholic Research and Therapy. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1974. xvii + 248 pp. References, author and subject indices. $11.50.     

In search of a spiritus: Francesco Patrizi on tides

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes two chapters of Francesco Patrizi’s Nova de universis philosophia that deal with a topic widely debated in European intellectual circles at the time: the origin of tides. By deconstructing Patrizi’s views on the phenomenon of ebb and flow, this paper places these chapters of Patrizi’s opus magnum into a larger context and shows how, with the use of novel philosophical arguments, he sought to replace what he considered an outdated theory of tides.     

Globalization as a political invention: Geographical lenses

In this essay, I emphasize that politics does exist at a global scale, though it exists in a non-conventional way, far from the times, places, people, and objects by which we are used to analyzing its existence. Geography can be used as a vehicle or a special lens to ensure that these emerging realities are not missed.     

The introduction of Australian digital television: Politics,policy and power

This article discusses the introduction of digital television to Australia, and the competing interests, and conflicts of power, surrounding this. It seeks to explain the primary outcomes of the digital settlement in terms of these interests and these processes of power. It points out how this settlement was very much at odds with the pro-market, deregulatory and competition-oriented reform advanced by the Howard government (and prior to it, the Hawke and Keating governments) in other industry sectors. The digital settlement introduced in 2001 entirely determined what Australians watched on their television screens for the first decade of the 21st century. This article seeks to unpack the processes that led to this outcome.

本文讨论了澳大利亚数字电视的引进以及围绕它的利益博弈和权力斗争。作者力图从利益或权力的角度理解数字电视引进的主要结果。作者指出,数字电视的引进与霍华德政府（以及之前的霍克和基廷政府）推行的市场化、解除管制、竞争导向的改革大相径庭。2001年引进的数字电视整个决定了21世纪头十年澳大利亚人在电视屏幕上看些什么。本文意在揭示通向这一结果的过程。     

In search of the nation in Fiume: Irredentism,cultural nationalism,borderlands

Irredentism is a crucial, yet understudied phenomenon of nationalism. Most scholars emphasise how irredentist thinking and practices function as a geopolitical instrument for inter‐state formation, resulting in radical nationalism. This article sheds light instead on the cultural preoccupations underlying irredentist discourses. It focusses on irredentist claims on the Adriatic city of Fiume (Rijeka) among Italian nationalists in the 19th and 20th centuries, emphasising how they were driven by cultural imaginaries of a spiritual borderland for the nation. These imaginaries continued to inform irredentist arguments during the phase of political mobilisation. This sheds light on contemporary European politics, in which irredentist imaginaries are once again shaping nationalist discourses.     

Historiography as a form of political thought

This article seeks to combine two lines of thought that have been little studied: a model history of early modern historiography, and a theory of the impact of historiography on a political society. Under the former heading, it traces the growth of a narrative of European history as a series of sequels to the Roman empire, and a history of historiography as passing from classical narrative to antiquarian study and Enlightened philosophy. Under the latter, it considers the effect on political life of being narrated in a plurality of contexts, and asks whether a modern society can survive if deprived of the capacity for debating its history.     

Politics of tangibility,intangibility, and place in the making of a European cultural heritage in EU heritage policy

The EU has recently launched several initiatives that aim to foster the idea of a common European cultural heritage. The notion of a European cultural heritage in EU policy discourse is extremely abstract, referring to various ideas and values detached from physical locations or places. Nevertheless the EU initiatives put the abstract policy discourse into practice and concretize its notions about a European cultural heritage. A common strategy in this practice is ‘placing heritage’ – affixing the idea of a European cultural heritage to certain places in order to turn them into specific European heritage sites. The materialisation of a European cultural heritage and the production of physical European heritage sites are crucial elements in the policy through which the EU seeks to govern both the actors and the meanings of heritage. On the basis of a qualitative content analysis of diverse policy documents and informational and promotional material, this article presents five strategies of ‘placing heritage’ used in the EU initiatives. In addition, the article presents a theoretical model of circulation of the tangible and intangible dimensions of heritage in the EU heritage policy discourse and discusses the EU’s political intents included in the practices of ‘placing heritage’.     

In defence of Australian foreign policy: common themes,assumptions, and challenges

ABSTRACT

While interrelated issues and challenges can only expand, the study of foreign policy in Australia is not a very healthy discipline. While not wholly wedged on life-support, there are genuine grounds for concern about the decline of Australian foreign policy (AFP) as a subject for serious academic concentration and its position as a marginalised topic of analysis. Unfortunately, attempts to reinvigorate the field continue to contend with a number of ingrained biases. AFP can be incorrectly dismissed as muddled and marginal while major debate points in the field are often glibly portrayed as broadly settled. This is despite the that fact that it can provide unique insights into policy-making in the twenty-first century while teaching students the benefits of problem-solving through a multi-disciplinary lens. Additionally, there is an ever-changing, contested set of knowledge that future leaders will need to consider in order to be successful, critical thinkers in a multi-agency environment. This will continue to incorporate an evolving variety of significant issues that constitute both conventional and unconventional threats to national interests.