In order to gain access to the EU, nations must be seen to implement formal instruments that protect the rights of minorities. This book examines the ways in which these tools have worked in a number ...of post-communist states, and explores the interaction of domestic and international structures that determine the application of these policies. Using empirical examples and comparative cases, the text explores three levels of policy-making: within sub-state and national politics, and within international agreements, laws and policy blueprints. This enables the authors to establish how domestic policymakers negotiate various structural factors in order to interpret rights norms and implement them long enough to gain EU accession. Showing that it is necessary to focus upon the states of post-communist Europe as autonomous actors, and not as mere recipients of directives and initiatives from ‘the West’, the book shows how underlying structural conditions allow domestic policy actors to talk the talk of rights protection without walking the walk of implementing minority rights legislation on their territories.
This is a new exploration of how the events of the twentieth century still cast a shadow over relations between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.Using social constructivism theory, it provides ...a comparative assessment of Germany's post-reunification relations with the Czech Republic and Poland within the framework of the contemporary alliance structure. Identifying the key actors and factors, Cordell and Wolff examine the long-standing continuity in the norms and values that underpin German foreign policy and explore the issues of borders, territory, identities, minorities and population transfers. Paying particular attention to the process of European integration and the role of the new Germany within Europe, the authors identify how new possibilities for co-operation might finally overcome legacies of the past. This pioneering study will be of particular interest to students of European politics and international studies.
This paper commences with some general observations on Poland's kin-state policy followed by an analysis of that element of kin-state policy concerned with the Polish minority in Germany. The paper ...argues that the recent invigoration of kin-state politics cannot be viewed in isolation from wider global political trends. Rather it contends that this increased concern with the fate of claimed ethnic kin is part of a wider trend towards the privileging of identity politics. It is further argued that in turn this impulse is located within the growth of populism, the celebration of parochialism, anti-globalisation sentiment and Euroscepticism, all of which have been fuelled by the financial crash of 2007/2008. The paper concludes by pointing to a paradox between the pursuit of policies that seek to prioritise ethnic identification with a kin-state and the commitment of member-states of the European Union to ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe.
This authoritative volume assesses how the recently democratised political system in Poland is adapting to the challenges posed by the country's desire to "rejoin Europe". Its excellent panel of ...highly respected Polish academics considers various issues not generally well-known to the English-speaking world, but of great importance in the light of Poland's impending entry into the European Union.
Karl Cordell is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Plymouth. His previous publications include Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe and The Politics of Ethnicity in Central Europe .
This paper considers the ramifications of the fact that a majority of (Jewish) Israeli citizens no longer considers the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territory of the West Bank to be ...an 'occupation'. Informed by qualitative research conducted in Israel and the occupied territory of the West Bank, the paper argues the case for understanding of this process of social legitimation as being rooted in complex structures of cultural processes and practices grounded in ideological and religious beliefs. Identifying Zionism as an ethno-national ideology, located within the wider ethno-national impulse of nineteenth century Europe, the paper further investigates a number of cultural processes that have led to the domestic justification and rationalisation of occupation in the Israeli public consciousness and consequently, the legitimisation of continued occupation. These cultural practices are inherently highly political, constituting a long-term strategy aimed at maintaining the occupation. The paper argues that this strategy is articulated not only by cultural practices of ethnonationalism and identity politics, but ultimately by various acts and facets of violence.
A broad-ranging study that explores the complex relationship between ethnicity and democratization, focusing on specific case studies including France, Spain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia, ...Albania and Hungary. Marrying the empirical and theoretical, the book begins by conceptualizing the nature of ethnicity and relating these ideas to different theories of democracy and democratization. The contributors locate ethnic experiences within a series of common frameworks to shed light on key issues such as: * the effect of democratization and authoritarian rule on ethnic tensions * the extent to which ethnicity is constructed as an ideological tool * whether democracy can only function if all citizens are fully assimilated.
The Demographics of Empire Karl Ittmann, Dennis D. Cordell, Gregory H. Maddox / Karl Ittmann, Dennis D. Cordell, Gregory H. Maddox
11/2010
eBook
The Demographics of Empireis a collection of essays examining the multifaceted nature of the colonial science of demography in the last two centuries. The contributing scholars of Africa and the ...British and French empires focus on three questions: How have historians, demographers, and other social scientists understood colonial populations? What were the demographic realities of African societies and how did they affect colonial systems of power? Finally, how did demographic theories developed in Europe shape policies and administrative structures in the colonies? The essays approach the subject as either broad analyses of major demographic questions in Africa's history or focused case studies that demonstrate how particular historical circumstances in individual African societies contributed to differing levels of fertility, mortality, and migration. Together, the contributors toThe Demographics of Empirequestion demographic orthodoxy, and in particular the assumption that African societies in the past exhibited a single demographic regime characterized by high fertility and high mortality.
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