This book discusses a wide range of situations where women's citizenship is contested. Essentialist arguments about the nature of women seem at odds with legal-liberal concepts of citizenship which stress individual rights of citizens and argue that differences that might exist (religious, ethnic, gender, sexual) are irrelevant to acquisition of citizenship. Women have taken their grievances into a range of locations, the diversity of which is important if these are to be successfully addressed. Liberal citizenship theory should be regarded as problematic with respect to all groups, including women, who historically have been excluded from its purview and its practice. The issue of women's relationship to men with respect to the pursuit of rights needs to be considered here. Men are interested in many of the issues around which women mobilise: for example, fair trade, human rights, poverty and debt, environmental justice and sustainability, improved working conditions, peace and anti-racism.
This chapter considers some of the socio-economic and political constraints which challenge the possibility of promoting and enhancing democracy in contemporary Latin and Central America. It starts with a discussion which addresses the political and social consequences of the macro-economic strategies of neo-liberalism. If one adheres to a popular-democracy model of Latin American political life, then it may be seen as good coming from adversity, as the expression of self-help and the participatory ethos. An examination of contemporary insurgencies and the state's response to them provides one example of how the military is at the heart of contemporary political power. The continuing inability to deal with the resolution of seemingly intractable and ongoing problems of social exclusion, political violence and economic deprivation on the part of elected governments remains a thorn in the side of their presumed dedication to the deepening of democracy.
This chapter suggests an alternative theoretical perspective on Union citizenship based on evolving ideas of community membership and the institutional dynamics of the European Union. Constructive citizenship thus has a dual reference. Because delimitations of political units by boundary-drawing are not natural acts but the artificial product of ongoing political processes, constructive citizenship seeks to address the challenges of diversity. Secondly, constructive citizenship capitalises on the emergent opportunities for the formation of a European polity beyond the nation-state and for multi-level governance. The chapter seeks to articulate a framework for democratic citizenship beyond the nation-state. Constructive citizenship requires citizens to be responsible, to show respect and sensitivity for others, and to be ready to question rather than to accept things on the basis of trust. Since immigration rules affect and are being affected by citizenship, constructive citizenship relies on and requires a re-articulation of the existing immigration discourse and policy.
The 1992 General Election result was a profound disappointment to the Labour Party and for some it was a trauma. John Smith lacked the urgency and radicalism demanded by Labour's deeper predicament, beginning with 'the union problem' arising from the contentious alliance. The overwhelming character of the crisis forced Smith to make the union issue more of a priority than he initially preferred. He became fully persuaded of the need for One Member One Vote in candidate selection and at this stage considered that future leadership elections must involve only a one-member-one-vote ballot of party members plus the representation of MPs. One final mechanism helped to produce a better feeling, new unity and another dimension of democratic renewal. Assisting in stabilisation during and after all the turbulence was the management by Smith and Larry Whitty of other policy-making changes.
This chapter examines the way in which capitalism has been underpinned by a self-conscious propaganda campaign on the part of the world's major corporate powers. The rise of corporate propaganda since the 1970s has been particularly aimed at selling the idea of free, unregulated business enterprise and an accompanying policy agenda that facilitates the expansion and spread of global capitalism. Capitalism came under attack during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the counter-culture movement brought with it a proliferation of public interest groups that challenged the authority of business and sought government controls over business activities. In response to the significant decline in confidence in free enterprise in the 1960s and 1970s, the US Advertising Council launched a major campaign in 1976 to promote free enterprise, or as the Council termed it: 'create greater understanding of the American economic system'.
The discussion and thinking behind the Party into Power project were reported to the National Executive Committee (NEC) on 31 January 1996. It was not surprising that the atmosphere around the NEC chairs meeting from this point was described by one of Blair's aides as 'grudging and negative', nor that the cooperative unity within the Party into Power discussions should give way to a developing split. The task force on building a healthy party was a continuation of regeneration discussions which had been going on since 1992. It was poorly attended even by the low standards of NEC involvement in the Party into Power. Most union leaders had generally kept some distance from the detailed politics of the Party into Power discussions as internal party business. Some ultra-loyalist NEC trade union representatives discouraged information going to their senior officers who might have reacted against it.
Control and spin were judged to be misunderstood, trust received only a one-word mention. There was no reference to the difficulties produced by party management and manipulative politics, nor would there be in Gould's future public analysis of political problems under Blair. Now there also came a pivotal development which affected party management and the mood of union-party relations for years to come. For Blair, the significance of the 'end of control freakery' had always been presentational. As headquarters managers saw it, whatever the intimations of potential change, he would soon lose any enthusiasm for adopting a new model of leadership and management. He was simply dealing with the significant public problems that the more overt and heavy forms of control had begun to cause him. 'The end of control freakery' was sincerely meant as a contrast with what had gone before.
This chapter provides an analysis for the Turkish-Cypriot side during the rather hectic period of crisis and fluidity that led to the much publicised referenda of 24 April 2004. It highlights the extent to which the developments that led to the end of an era in Turkish-Cypriot political history have altered the parameters within which the resolution of the conflict could be sought. The chapter reveals how, while inherently embedded within the conflict, business actors can and have played a critical role in altering political incentives and trends in northern Cyprus. Notwithstanding the huge disappointment which followed its rejection by an overwhelming majority of the Greek-Cypriot electorate, the Annan Plan, no doubt, provided a field day for the Turkish-Cypriot civil society actors to establish their credentials as a social movement with political effectiveness.
Cyprus is a conflict at the crossroads in more than one sense. It has been the site of one of the most long-standing and protracted conflicts in international politics, bedevilled by a complex interplay of actors and factors at the local, regional, European and international levels. Yet it finds itself at a particularly crucial moment in its historical evolution. This book is divided into four main parts. The first focuses on the internal actors and units of analysis within conflict contexts, and illustrates how and why delving into the dynamics within conflict parties can offer a richer and more comprehensive understanding of the existence, persistence and evolution of conflict. The second book turns to external actors and factors in conflict, and assess how the regional, European and wider international dimensions of the Cyprus conflict have influenced conflict dynamics, in interaction with its internal determinants. The third part broadens this set of approaches by involving the case of Cyprus in comparative analysis, be this on the constitutional features of future solutions, on the role of one internal actor in conflict within European Union, such as the refugees, or on the role of an external actor involved in conflict resolution. The last part of the book broadens out beyond conflict studies strictly defined.
This chapter analyses the effectiveness in the European Union's (EU) methods in conflict resolution. It delves into three conflict cases, with a particular emphasis on the Cyprus conflict, in which EU played a role as a third party: Bosnia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus. All three conflicts are characterised by competing claims to the rights of self-determination, sovereignty, ethnic identity and territorial integrity, and by the effort of international mediators to resolve these competing claims. While Bosnia and Macedonia are post-Cold War conflicts, Cyprus is a particularly intractable conflict, whose origins date back to the decolonisation period. The EU became involved in different phases and to different degrees in these three conflicts, and in all three the prospects of EU membership have played a catalytic role, insofar as all the primary parties to these conflicts could and did turn to the EU to satisfy their competing interests.