Politics and Public Policy

Abstract

Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others has been widely praised as the first German film to confront the horrors of the East German communist regime. But the film's politics may be ambiguous. As critical as it is of East Germany, it does not offer a ringing endorsement of West Germany. For example, the film's playwright-hero seems to have artistic problems in the West, just as he did in the East. The film's equivocal attitude toward communism is epitomized by its apparently positive view of the Marxist author Bertolt Brecht. This essay compares The Lives of Others with Brecht's play The Good Person of Szechwan in an effort to understand Donnersmarck's attitude toward his East German predecessor and what it means for his larger view of communism and its relation to art.     

Remembering the past against the grain: an analysis of the reconstructions of the past in The Sunday News's ‘Lest We Forget’ column

Memories of the nationalist struggle are fervently contested in Zimbabwean public spaces such as the media. This paper examines the emergence of the counter‐hegemonic historical narratives in the state‐controlled media that seek to subvert the dominant nationalist discourses propagated by the ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF). Focusing on the Sunday News's Lest We Forget newspaper column, the paper analyses the representations of the role played by the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in the liberation struggle, a nationalist movement whose contributions are marginalised and obscured in the official nationalist historiography. Given that in Zimbabwe the state‐owned media are generally viewed as mouthpieces of the ruling party, this paper identifies the tensions in the Sunday News as alternative historical memories are being reproduced and sustained. Drawing upon the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method, this article argues that alternative historical imaginations are rekindled in the state media.     

Lead isotope ratios: Tracking the migration of European‐Americans to Grafton,Illinois in the 19th century

Lead isotope analysis was conducted using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP‐MS) instruments on local soil samples and human premolar tooth enamel from a 19th century population from Grafton, Illinois, USA. The goal of the study was to determine if lead isotope analysis could be used to infer place of birth and patterns of 19th century migration into the city of Grafton. Five soil core samples from a location near Grafton, Illinois, five grave soil samples from the city cemetery and the tooth enamel of 19 human premolars were analysed. The results of the soil core analysis indicated that the lead isotopic signature of Grafton differs significantly from isotope ratios of other geographic areas associated with recorded places of birth of 19th century Jersey County residents. Elemental and isotope analysis of the soil samples indicated that diagenesis was not a factor in the analysis of lead isotopic signatures of enamel. From the lead isotope analysis of human premolars, the geographic origin of 13 of the remaining 15 individuals could be inferred. The inferred geographic origin was supplemented by an analysis of 1860 mortality and census records and demonstrated the utility of using lead isotope analysis in bio‐archaeological investigations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

James W. Ceaser's Contribution to Political Science Introduction

Abstract

A theme of interest in the process of democratic consolidation among comparative politics scholars is how political and nonpolitical variables, including economic and class issues, interrelate. Whereas the “transitions to democracy” literature conceptualizes the emergence of democratic regimes to be primarily an elite-driven political process, the actual consolidation of a democratic regime requires the active organization of civil sectors that then learn to live by and accept the outcomes of uncertain democratic governance. This “granting of stakes” in the new regime is perhaps best accomplished by the aggregation and articulation of interests among labor and business sectors in “civil society”—a term usefully defined by Alfred Stepan (1988) as manifold social movements from all classes organized to promote their interests. It is in this area that the interplay of political and economic interests is most clearly visible. Indeed, although elites can make decisions about the institutional, political, and economic future of a country in transition, they cannot guarantee that those decisions will be implemented or supported by the populace and that the incipient democratic system will stabilize. What is frequently neglected in elite-centered accounts of democratic transitions, then, is civil society and its links to elites through popular organizations.     

Ceaser's American Political Science

Abstract

The transition and subsequent consolidation of countries that move from an authoritarian to a democratic regime have been widely explained by factors such as the international environment, economic conditions, political culture, institutions, and most prominently, elite behavior.¹ But although elites can make decisions about the institutional, political, and economic future of a country in transition, they cannot guarantee that those decisions will be implemented or supported by the populace, or that the incipient democratic system will stabilize. What is frequently neglected in these elite-centered accounts of democratic transitions, then, is civil society and its links to elites.     

Disco and Democracy: Thoughts on Stillman's Film and Book

Abstract

Statesmanship can be exercised in a variety of situations, not all of which involve sitting in the Executive Office. This response examines three of the most impressive American efforts at statesmanship—that of Madison in his capacity as Founder (on how best to secure rights), Franklin as author of a new American Way of life (based on virtues freed from religious seriousness), and Lincoln as theorist of a political morality. All three examples, I argue, provide evidence that a statesman is more than just a politician who has been dead for some time.     

Tocqueville and the End of History

Abstract

We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts thinking about the “Body Politic,” perhaps the most vivid and enduring image in speech describing political community ever proposed. Shakespeare's meditation on this image invites us to reflect on the conditions under which a body politic can be made whole; that the constitution of any formal commonwealth requires a self-conscious articulation of the body politic and that this articulation could not happen without the parts themselves being aware of their partial character within the whole political order. The need for the consent of those parts in the political order to which they would belong thus becomes suddenly more evident. Shakespeare's plays show that this need for consent always emerges within discrete political communities. As such, the constituent parts of those communities must grant consent, exercise and enjoy their rights, and participate in the whole within the limitations circumscribed by their political boundaries and borders. His dramatic works thus help us reconsider contemporary attacks on the nation-state and illuminate the body politic as an essential means for bringing into being the preconditions and framework required for healthy political life, including liberal democracy, to flourish.