Simon Hix, Abdoul G. Noury, Gérard Roland,Politica democratică în Parlamentul European, Cluj-Napoca, CA Publishing, 2009. Reviewed by Mihaela Herbel
December 31, 2009 Author: Mihaela Herbel
The book is a useful tool not only for researchers keen on studying topics related with the European Parliament but also for political practitioners or those who want to inform on this topic. It is a useful tool not only for describing so concisely the institution of the European Parliament and the evolution of its prerogatives from 1979 up to 2004, or for casting light on the problem often confusing of the relationship between the increase in the EP’s prerogatives and the treaties which granted these prerogatives (this is both a necessary positioning of the topic in the field of the European studies and a didactic dimension) but also for analyzing the different faces of the relation between two structural elements of the political-electoral life:party cohesion and voting discipline. For the co-authors and for any practitioner of politics things are clear:the two elements are mutually depending upon the efficiency of the other and together can or cannot generate political success.
Book review: André Liebich, De pe celălalt ţărm. Social democraţia după 1921, Cluj-Napoca, CA Publishing, 2009. Reviewed by Mihaela Herbel
December 31, 2009 Author: Mihaela Herbel
De pe celălalt ţărm. Social democraţia după 1921(original title:From the other shore. Russian Social-Democracy after 1921,Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997)is above all, a collective biography, the story of the Mensheviks, a faction which, between 1903 and 1917 split from the Social-Democrat Party of the Russian Workers – changed into the Russian Communist Party after the 1917 coup. It is the story of the Menshevik Party’s 40-year lifetime and of its wanderings in three countries from two continents during the most troublesome years of the 20th century. By all means, the Mensheviks are not singular in the field of political exile but they are most emblematic in remaining essentially an exiled political group. They never seized power in Russia and turned overnight into a dissident group inside their own party. Eventually,banished from the country in 1921, the Russian Mensheviks reached political maturity after emigration. It was also as emigrants that they were forced to define their role in compliance with the status of exiled political group sentenced to remain outside Russia’s borders: the role of political observers of domestic politics. History recorded the Mensheviks for this very position of observers and experts in the problems of the Soviet Russian politics.
L’Impact de la Globalisation sur une Bonne Gouvernée
December 31, 2009 Author: Gavril Preda
Abstract: Globalization as a multidimensional process has a great impact upon the contemporary economic, social, political and cultural problems. The trend of the extension and deepening of the interdependencies among national states isdetermining the extension of the problems from the internal level towards the international sphere having impact on theprocess of governance. It emphasizes the strong bond between the economic dimension of globalization and the political methods and instruments of intervention pertaining to governance. The analysis of the concepts of governed, governance and good governance is made in relation with the impact of the economic globalization.
Keywords: good governance, globalization, governance,governing
Multi-level Governance and Security in Contemporary Society. The Case of the European Union
December 31, 2009 Author: Constantin Hlihor
Abstract: The European political environment has suffered core transformation after the collapse of communism in the field of European reconstruction & public policies and has extended its values towards the area behind the Iron Curtain. From this perspective, multi-level governance and security policy are by far the most important. This study tries to answer the following questions: How will the actors of multi-level governance succeed in being real partners of the state in providing security for the citizen and for the society, in general? Do the actors dispose of the same instruments and resources within this complex interacting system? Can the principles of good governance
be applied to a social dimension like security? The issues of legitimacy and power of all these actors will also be a analyzed.
Keywords:governance, governance actors, energy security, security, privatization of security
Challenges and Answers for Governance in the Context of Globalization
December 30, 2009 Author: Roxana ZYMAN
Abstract: My article discusses the relationship between globalization, governance and development. Many authors considerglobalization as being beneficial for humanity, but they also show its negative effects which require institutionaladjustments. Although numerous researchers investigated the topic of governance, many studies present governancemodels which are inadequate from a global perspective or they differ among each other. Therefore, I organized a fieldresearch project on challenges for governance in the context of globalization, using sociological methods, which includedinternational and national actors from all regions of the world. Along with a discussion on challenges, my article concludesthat good governance (at national and local levels) is the prime answer to these challenges and presents a model of goodgovernance from a global perspective. My model is the outcome of my field research and analysis of other studies. It is basedon some universal principles of good governance grouped in 5 components. My results could be useful not only forstimulating the theoretical debate on globalization and development or debates on governance reforms in Central andEastern Europe (of extreme relevance in times of financial crisis), but also in the area of international developmentassistance.
Keywords: Challenges for governance, development, globalization, principles of good governance, urbanization.
La Gouvernance multi niveau, la Démocratie et le Séparatisme en Espagne
December 29, 2009 Author: Barbara LOYER
Abstract: Spain was a point of reference for the Eastern countries after the fall of the iron curtain. Aiming to avoid anothercivil war, the system implemented there is one of the most decentralized in Europe. In part, citizens believe that theautonomy experienced by the elected officials of their autonomous community derives from historical rights which do notemanate from the 1978 Constitution but from previous times. The Constitution is not seen by them as the source of Spanishdemocracy. It is the case in Catalonia, in Galicia and in the Basque country where nationalist parties defend the idea thattheir “peoples” are different from the Spanish people. This conviction is fuelling the actions by ETA against democracy in thename of the democratic rights of the Basque people. Transborder policies are important elements of the political strategiesof the Catalan and Basque nationalists. In Navarre, autonomy is rooted in a very ancient history but doesn’t build upon therepresentation of Navarre’s people being different from the Spanish people. The majority of the Spanish citizens, though,believe that the 1978 constitution represents a guarantee of democracy without having recourse to historical rights.
Keywords: Spain, Europe, E.T.A., democracy, nationalism
Christian Minorities between Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey
December 28, 2009 Author:Giordano ALTAROZZI
Abstract The paper aims to analyze the history of the Levantine community living into the Ottoman Empire and its development during centuries, by the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople until the foundation of the Republic of Turkey by Mustapha Kendal. In this ambit, very important is the transition between XIXth and XXth centuries, when the Levantine community increases (so called Golden Age) before the WWI’s beginning. During the Great War, minorities in the Ottoman Empire decrease and this trend keep on after the Turkish Republic’s foundation. The new laic State operates a minorities’discrimination founded on ethnic and national items, but on religious too, because in the Turkish point of view, people maybe Turks just if they are Muslims: who is not Muslim, can’t be Turk. The paper is based on bibliography regarding the Ottoman and Turkish history and culture, as well as on an analysis of the documents collected in several Catholic archives in Istanbul.
Keywords: Ethnic Relations-Levant-Minorities-Ottoman Empire-Turkey.
La Diaspora Kurde en Europe.Étude de cas: les Kurdes de la Roumanie
December 27, 2009 Author:Adriana TĂMĂŞAN
Abstract: The article is a historical and sociological study aiming to outline the shaping of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe throughout the 20th century. Considering the situation of a community recently created, the one of the Kurds in Romania,and based upon field research, the present study is investigating the causes of the Kurdish immigration in Romania, the time periods of maximum flow, the placement areas, the level of adaptation to the Romanian society, the level of conservation oftheir original identity and the relations with the authorities and the Romanian society. Our research has revealed the double orientation of the Kurds in Romania – one towards the country of origin and the other towards the host country – a feature which determines their perception in a wider context – that of the Kurdish diaspora symbolizing a social organization equally linked to the country of origin and to the host country. This perspective is providing the opportunity for a deeper outlook upon the social reality of the Kurds’ existence
Ombres dès Empire“ ou heritages historiques sur les communautés nationales en Europe Orientale. Le cas de la Bosnie-Herzégovine
December 20, 2009 Author: Antonello F. BIAGINI & Andrea CARTENY
Abstract: The fall of Constantinople (1453), symbol of the inevitable expansion of the Ottoman power, was followed by the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Ottoman Empire in 1463. Nonetheless, the Ottoman Empire has revealed its power in the military field and also in political and institutional matters. The debut of the process of Islamisation is undoubtedly the main feature of Bosnia’s modern history which fuelled the creation of several myths and legends, along with a vigorous historiographic debate. With the system of the millet effective up until 1878, the non-Muslim communitiespreserved their confessional identity: under the Habsburg administration the Muslim community equally searched for areasof expression. After the Great War and the union with other Slavic peoples to the South, moving past the Ustasha period,Tito’s socialism provided Bosnia with the dimension of a state inhabited by Croatians, Serbs and Muslims. The after-Titoperiod, the Yugoslav wars and the Dayton agreements have revived the debate on the national question and its ethno-confessional components in Bosnia.
Keywords: Bosnian, millet, minorities, Ottoman, Yugoslav
Les Kurdes, la Turquie et L’Union Européenne: les Implications du Dialogue Multi-Niveau pour la Gouvernance du Moyen Orient
December 20, 2009 Author:Valentina-Tania SECHEŞAN
Abstract: On its way to the European Union, Turkey is facing many problems mainly the problem of the Kurdish minority. Theannual conferences organized by the EU Turkey Civic Commission are searching for a peaceful long-term solution to thisproblem. If any found, it could impact on the governance of the Middle East due to the stakeholders taking part in the multi-level dialogue.
Keywords: Turkey’s accession to the EU, the governance of the Middle East, the Kurdish problem, multi-level dialogue,ethnic minorities.