Scepticisme et politique

Scepticism is generally considered as leading to political conformity. But obedience to custom is not the only consequence of the separation between the private and the public spheres. The main result of this separation is to create an area of private life which is a space of freedom, away from the crowd and the authorities. It is thus easier to understand the sceptical stance in politics, advising the Prince secretly, while keeping out of the limelight. Above all, this helps us to appreciate the contribution of scepticism to modern conceptions of liberty in providing a social model for the free pursuit of truth.     

Local Government Policymaking and Management in Russia

Local government in Russia is characterized by the collapse of traditional relationships between legislative and executive powers and between different levels of executive and legislative hierarchies. The re-definition of these relationships involves a struggle for power pursued against a backdrop of radical systemic change in the economic and social spheres. These changes are accompanied by a breakdown (and gradual realignment) of the system of distribution, which has accelerated the process of economic and social destabilization in the larger cities. The response of local administrations to the problems generated has been hampered by the fiscal crisis that affects both national and local levels of government. This article reviews the changing relationship between governmental levels and between legislative and executive powers in the context of these broader developments, and in the context of Russian and Soviet traditions of local government. Overall the article notes the perceived failure of the democratization of the legislature at local level to deal with the crisis, and the consequent shift of power towards a strengthened executive.     

L'Édit de Nantes et l'indifférence hollandaise

Did the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes find, in the Netherlands, an echo comparable to the one caused by the revocation of this same Edict, a century later? A first inquiry through documents directly related to events of that period (letters of politicians, pamphlets, synod acts, etc.) do not provide any revealing account of a Dutch interest in the French biconfessionalism settlement. The hypothesis put forward in this paper in order to explain this silence from the Dutch side are based on the stake shifting between France and the Netherlands, at that time, concerning tolerance.     

Conveying Mission Through Outcome Measurement: Services to the Homeless in New York City

This paper outlines the policy decision to implement a performance incentive program in a large social services agency. Specifically, it describes the evolution of services to homeless people in New York City, including the creation of the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the privatization of a majority of the shelter system, and the redefinition of the role of government in the provision of homeless services. It explains how performance measurement is an integral part of this evolution, and the numerous challenges that this initiative has presented to management of the Department.     

Gendered Spaces of Terror and Assault: The Testimonio of REMHI and the Commission for Historical Clarification in Guatemala

On 25 February 1999, Guatemalans received the much anticipated report of the United Nations-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Memory of Silence, which detailed wartime atrocities and decades-long American support of the Guatemalan army. This document followed the earlier release of the Catholic church's own REMHI report (Recuperation of Historical Memory Inter-diocesan Project), Guatemala: never again . Using the recently released reports and databases of the CEH and REMHI, we explore the significant use of testimonio as a tool of shared witnessing, collective remembrance, and individual recollection of the special brutality directed against Maya women. Through testimonio, the outcomes of visible and invisible terror and violence in Guatemala are articulated as personal, social and geographic spaces of terror, all of which are gendered and racialised. With the civil war officially over, Maya women of Guatemala see the spaces of terror diminish. Given debates over testimonio, however, the grounds for assault and denial remain fertile.     

Sites and sanctity: revisiting the cult of murdered and martyred Anglo-Saxon royal saints

The cults of the murdered and martyred royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England have been interpreted as political in origin and this view has received widespread acceptance. This article, which discusses the cults of the kings, Oswald, Oswiu and Edwin of Northumbria, and Edward the Martyr and those of the princes, Kenelm of Mercia and Æthelred and Æthelberht of Kent, puts forward a new interpretation, suggesting that their cults originated in lay and non-élite devotion to the innocent victims of unjust and violent death, before being taken up for political and other purposes. It addresses the problem of popular religion in Anglo-Saxon England and seeks to show how these cults may be used to shed light on the beliefs of the ordinary Anglo-Saxon laity.