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Democracy is the most important idea underpinning the modern Western political tradition, yet what do we really understand by the term? Do governments really carry out the wishes of the people who elect them? In this work, the first in the William A. Douglass Distinguished Scholar Series, Pedro Ibarra Güell questions conventional approaches to democratic theory that judge democracy by elections alone. Specifically, he argues in favor of a new interpretation of democracy that incorporates not just electoral processes but also an established set of relations between citizens and leaders that facilitate a greater harmony, or concurrence, between popular demands and political decision-making. H...
The strength of secessionism in liberal-democracies varies in time and space. Inspired by historical institutionalism, Nationalism, Secessionism, and Autonomy argues that such variation is explained by the extent to which autonomy evolves in time. If autonomy adjusts to the changing identity, interests, and circumstances of an internal national community, nationalism is much less likely to be strongly secessionist than if autonomy is a final, unchangeable settlement. Developing a controlled comparison of, on the one hand, Catalonia and Scotland, where autonomy has been mostly static during key periods of time, and, on the other hand, Flanders and South Tyrol, where it has been dynamic, and also considering the Basque Country, Québec, and Puerto Rico as additional cases, this book puts forward an elegant theory of secessionism in liberal-democracies: dynamic autonomy staves off secessionism while static autonomy stimulates it.
This book proposes a conceptualisation of nationalism with a multilevel operational character. It offers three different perspectives on nationalism that consider both the discursive structure and the discursive agency of nationalism. It also demonstrates a number of intra-phenomenal and extra-phenomenal constraints on nationalism. This book underlines that nationalism in contemporary Europe should not be regarded in terms of methodological homogeneity and conceptual uniformity, ideological rigidity or strategic consistency but rather as a contested, segmented, bounded and contextual phenomenon.
The events of the 11th of September 2001 revealed most dramatically that globalization has a shadow. While large sections of the world’s population enjoy the perceived benefits of globalization, others seek to utilize globalization for their own politically violent purposes. If 9/11 demonstrated anything, it is that globalization can as readily facilitate violence and insecurity as it can produce stability, prosperity and political order. This edited volume offers important new methodological and multi-disciplinary insights into the study of globalization and political violence. It brings together studies from various disciplines in order to address the precise nature of the relationship b...
Comparative Approaches to Informal Housing Around the Globe brings together historians, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, urban planners and political activists to break new ground in the globalisation of knowledge about informal housing. Providing both methodological reflections and practical examples, they compare informal settlements, unauthorised occupation of flats, illegal housing construction and political squatting in different regions of the world. Subjects covered include squatter settlements in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, squatting activism in Brazil and Spain, right-wing squatting in Germany, planning laws and informality across countries in the Global North, and squatting in post-Second World War UK and Australia.
This book provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art account of the field, reaffirming Iberian Studies as a dynamic and evolving discipline offering promising areas of future research. It is an essential tool for research in Iberian Studies.
In this scholarly work, Zirakzadeh argues that there is a calculated reasoning behind ETA's political violence that is often overlooked by researchers. His book is a comprehensive account of the Basque region's grassroots politics.
"Contributors to this volume explore crucial issues regarding the articulation of politics at the beginning of the new millennium. What does sovereignty in the state mean in the contemporary world of neoliberal capitalism?" "The events of 9/11 have added dramatic urgency to these issues. Some of the contributors to this volume discuss questions associated with this new international context. But ultimately the volume's goal is to stimulate productive ways of thinking simultaneously about the dynamics articulating the concrete situation of identity politics or violence and the global rhetoric of international terrorism that has come to dominate the political discourse." --Book Jacket.
Democracy is the most important idea underpinning the modern Western political tradition, yet what do we really understand by the term? Do governments really carry out the wishes of the people who elect them? In this work, the first in the William A. Douglass Distinguished Scholar Series, Pedro Ibarra Güell questions conventional approaches to democratic theory that judge democracy by elections alone. Specifically, he argues in favor of a new interpretation of democracy that incorporates not just electoral processes but also an established set of relations between citizens and leaders that facilitate a greater harmony, or concurrence, between popular demands and political decision-making. H...
An examination of Basque nationalism from a historical perspective. Basque nationalism has been extensively examined from the perspectives of Basque culture and internal conditions in the Basque Country, but André Lecours is among the first to demonstrate how Basque nationalism was shaped by the many forms and historical phases of the Spanish state. His discussion employs one of the most debated approaches in the social sciences—historical institutionalism—and it includes an up-to-date examination of the circumstances for, and consequences of, recent events such as ETA's announcement in 2006 of a permanent cease-fire. Lecours also analyzes other aspects of Basque nationalism, including ...