Revisiting the growth coalition concept to analyse the success of the Crossrail London megaproject

There is a common perception that infrastructure megaprojects are difficult to implement, as they face many obstacles (cost overruns, political barriers and time delays). This was particularly the case in the UK where many projects were difficult to develop given a complex, centralized and turbulent financial context (e.g. the jubilee Line extension, the Eurostar project). Despite this complex British system, London is developing the Crossrail mega infrastructure project which is recognized to be on time and built within a planned budget. The paper aims to analyse the reasons for the development of this project in a turbulent political and financial British system. The main argument I defend is that Crossrail benefited from the constitution of a specific and localized growth coalition. Revisiting the notion developed by Logan and Molotch, I show how the aggregation of different interests (political and economic) has been essential in the concretization of this project. Actors motivated by the will to promote the growth of London and to sustain the growth of population and jobs have been at the forefront to defend Crossrail. These elements have put Crossrail on a route of success. The paper concludes by characterizing and analysing such a success.     

Steel of Victory,Scrap of Defeat: Mobilizing the French Home Front, 1939–40

This article traces the implementation, execution, and results of the French Ministry of Armaments’ scrap iron collection drive from September 1939 to June 1940. This collection drive was a belated effort to mobilize patriotic sentiment and raw materials for France’s war effort. By the late 1930s, the French government realized that it did not have — and, more importantly, would not be able to acquire — enough metal to meet ambitious armament plans. In September 1939, Raoul Dautry, the Minister of Armaments, began moving toward a controlled economy by setting up central distribution organizations, preventing the movement of stocks, and organizing the national scrap drive, modelled, in part, on Germany. Despite a rural distrust of the state and cases of individuals hoarding metal, most people responde­d to the call. Yet logistical difficulties in finances, manpower, and transportation hampered efforts. By May 1940, half of the 85,000 tons collected remained piled on the platforms of railway stations. With the invasion, the Germans immediately confiscated this metal. With the defeat of France, this failed drive came to symbolize France’s defeat and humiliation, as well as the impotence of the Third Republic.     

Policy Change and Learning in Response to Extreme Flood Events in Hungary: An Advocacy Coalition Approach

In an analysis of the 200‐year history of flood management in Hungary, I use the advocacy coalition framework and the focusing event literature to examine what policy change occurs and what is learned as a result of experiencing extreme and damaging flood events. By analyzing the policy response to a series of extreme floods (1998–2001) in this newly democratizing nation, I attempt to identify the factors that influenced the occurrence of policy change and policy‐oriented learning. In 2003, Hungary enacted a comprehensive flood management program that included economic development and environmental protection goals, a distinct departure from Hungary's historical structural approach to flood management. However, it is less clear that long‐lasting changes in belief systems about how floods should be managed have occurred. In this analysis, I argue that processes external to the flood policy subsystem (e.g., process of democratization and Hungary's accession to the European Union), along with the occurrence of the extreme flood events, enabled a coalition of individuals and organizations to press for policy change.     

辛亥遗产与南洋华侨抗战之精神动力

1931-1945年日本侵华时期,南洋华侨精英以辛亥革命为资源、以双十国庆为契机,广泛开展救国宣传和社会动员,发表政见和救国主张,在激发侨胞爱国情怀、增强侨众凝聚力方面发挥了不可低估的作用。此过程既强化了辛亥记忆,传承了革命精神,也使辛亥遗产成为华侨参与抗战的重要精神动力。     

Contested migration and settler politics in Cyprus

Immigration and settler literatures provide contrasting approaches to the evaluation of conflict between ‘newcomers’ and ‘indigenous’ groups. On the one hand, immigration studies emphasize that newcomers, particularly migrants, almost never fight civil wars; on the other hand, studies on settlers in contested territories expect inherently unstable relations between settlers and native populations affected by colonization projects. While each provides strong evidence to support its argument, neither literature has adequately accounted for hybrid cases where the settler and migrant categories have become almost indistinguishable. The article focuses on Cyprus as a paradigmatic such case. Specifically, it looks at populations transferred from Turkey to the northern part of the island after 1974 described either as settlers or immigrants by rival accounts in the Cypriot conflict. While colonization constitutes a violation of international conventions and a major obstacle to peace, settlers in such places as Cyprus, Tibet or Western Sahara often meet the profile of migrant populations more interested in daily survival issues than in territorial politics. In contrast to other historical or contemporary cases of settler colonialism such as Algeria (France) or West Bank and Gaza (Israel), what is particularly puzzling in Cyprus and elsewhere is the absence of mobilization and politicization among settlers despite perceived discrimination and fear of relocation following a negotiated peace agreement. Addressing this puzzle is essential to bridging the gaps between immigration and settler literatures and in mediating the tensions between conflicting claims over space, land and the political geography of peace settlements in deeply divided societies.     

Economic policy and development in Austrian Lombardy, 1815-1859

The question of economic integration is not new in Europe. Historically, the birth and construction of nation-states was important in stimulating interest in the systematic relationships between political and economic integration. In the case of the multinational structure of the Habsburg monarchy in the nineteenth century, the result was an economic policy that, for political reasons, aimed to unite the material interests of a state that was completely heterogeneous in other respects. Lombardy was a case in point. Traditionally the region had been in the economic vanguard in central Europe. When it again became part of Austria in 1815 it also became subject to the imperial policy of political integration. As a result its economic priorities were partially reformulated. On the one hand, Austria had a protectionist system aimed at autarky which made incentives to industrial production a priority. Lombardy's purely mercantilist outlook, on the other hand, was based around the production of a few highly specialized goods, most notably silk, for export. Conflict between economic interests in Lombardy was the inevitable result. Nevertheless, the imperial government had to take account of the fact that it was impossible to restrict Lombardy's international trade relations exclusively to the Austrian market. And the problems that beset any effort to tie the Lombard economy into a denser network of relationships with the Austrian market were not due to the political formation of the Italian nation because Northern Italy, and Lombardy in particular, continued to occupy an anomalous position within the context of the Italian economy.     

Amici fragili: the alliance between the Lega Nord and the Popolo della Libertà as seen by their representatives and members

The alliance between the Lega Nord (LN) and Forza Italia (FI), later Popolo della Libertà (PDL), continued, uninterrupted, for over a decade, until November 2011. The problems that beset it under the fourth Berlusconi government are known; however, there is a lack of academic analysis of how such an alliance was seen and experienced by the people who made up the fabric of its constituent organisations. Based on interviews with institutional representatives and members from both parties, this article addresses the question of how people within them saw their ally and its leaders, and what they thought of the centre-right alliance under the fourth Berlusconi government. The analysis reveals that, although the LN's rhetoric, style and uncompromising stances on policy were the target of much criticism within the PDL, the latter nonetheless showed much respect for its ally, the way it was led, its ability to communicate effectively and its rootedness at the local level. However, LN members and representatives were, in turn, extremely critical of the PDL and its leader, and very much conceived of the alliance as a ‘marriage of convenience’. This notwithstanding, it is reasonable to expect that the PDL and the LN may find ways to rebuild their alliance in the future, if indeed the PDL continues to exist in its present form, due to their fundamental compatibility at the ideological level and their understanding of each other's priorities.     

Interview with Romano Prodi

On the occasion of the Conference on the State of Italy, held at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies on 29–30 October 2013, David Kertzer interviewed former two-time Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Their focus was on the evolution of Prodi's involvement in Italian government and politics. This first in what is planned to be two such interviews examines Prodi's initial move from an economics professor at the University of Bologna interested in the study of political economy and industrial policy, to a major figure in implementing industrial policy in Italy. It looks at his brief stint as Minister of Industry under Giulio Andreotti, his founding of the influential industrial study group Nomisma, and then his presidency of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), Italy's giant holding company. With the crisis of the Italian political system in the early 1990s, Prodi was central to the creation of a new centre-left coalition, named L'Ulivo (the Olive Tree), an experience he recalls here, along with his first experience as Prime Minister, from 1996 to 1998.     

解放太原战役期间中国共产党与阎锡山集团民众动员之比较

解放太原战役期间战争双方均需在当地动用大量民力、物资,民众动员起着至关重要的作用。中国共产党与阎锡山集团往复争斗近十五年,彼此已相当熟悉,二者的动员模式、技术极其相似,但实践效果却判若两途。通过比较双方在政治宣传、民众保障、组织发动、思想教育等方面的动员活动,可见中国共产党的民众动员更贴合人们的需求,能够获得民众的自觉支持;反观阎锡山方面却是官民区隔、上下离心,浩大的动员声势常流于表面。二者迥异的组织能力和政党文化影响了实际动员效果。太原战役期间双方在动员中呈现的差异不啻是当时国共之别的重要缩影,也折射出左右两党最终胜败的内在原因。     

Community unionism and trade union renewal in the UK: moving beyond the fragments at last?

This paper explores the theory and practice of community unionism. It is now widely argued that if trade unions are to reach employees in small workplaces, those on part-time or temporary contracts, and women, black and ethnic minority workers, they need to sustain alliances beyond the walls of the workplace. Increasing the scale of political mobilization in this way can help secure trade union organization amongst new groups of workers while giving unions the power to raise questions of economic and social justice at a wider scale. After summarizing current developments in North America, the paper focuses on the situation in the UK in more detail. By highlighting the pioneering community unionism of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council (BWTUC), the paper explores the implications of community unionism for the future of trade unionism in the UK.