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31. The Euro-Med Partnership and Sub Regionalism: A Case of Region Building?

Author:
Stephen C. Calleya
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Stephen Calleya focuses on sub-regionalism as a tool of region building within the EMP. This paper's main concern is the question of whether, in view of the present EMP difficulties, subdividing the southern Mediterranean into various sub-regions (such as the Maghreb and the Mashreq) may be an efficient tool of region building. By taking account of regional relations among southern Mediterranean states and sub-regional initiatives, Calleya discusses several options and conditions under which sub-regionalism within the EMP could contribute to Euro- Mediterranean region building. Calleya argues that if the EU is serious about having a significant positive impact on regional integration in the Mediterranean in the short term, it is necessary to develop an adequate strategy for supporting more directly all regional sub-groupings in the southern Mediterranean.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Europe and Maghreb

32. Political Securitisation and Democratisation in the Maghreb: Ambiguous Discourses and Fine-tuning Practices for a Security Partnership

Author:
Said Haddadi
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Said Haddadi examines the interaction between security and democracy discourses and their mutually affecting relationship within the framework of the political and security basket of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. In this context, Haddadi places special emphasis on the role that institutions and practices within the EMP may play in contributing to the convergence of security and democracy views between the EU and North Africa. Against this background, this paper assesses the main arguments that underlie the political and security partnership within the EMP. The focus is on the process that led to the EU's 'securitization' of the Maghreb, that is, the EU's prioritization of security concerns relating to North Africa. Haddadi' s analysis of the interaction between security and democracy discourses in the EU and in North Africa points to a number of inconsistencies and dilemmas that are not sufficiently addressed by the institutions and practices of the EMP.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Democratization
Political Geography:
Europe, North Africa, and Maghreb

33. How Many Third Ways? Comparing the British, French and German Left in Government

Author:
Eckhard Schröter
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
In the late 1990s, the European Left seemed to be once more in the ascendancy with Social Democratic-led governments in power in the majority of EU countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. At the same time, the debate about the socalled 'Third Way' — as an icon of the apparent electoral revitalization of European Social Democracy — rose to become the most important reform discourse in the European party landscape.
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, France, and Germany

34. Governing the Capital -- Comparing Institutional Reform in Berlin, London, and Paris

Author:
Eckhard Schröter and Manfred Röber
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
The paper examines institutional changes in the political and administrative structures governing the cities of Berlin, London and Paris. In doing so, it analyzes the extent to which convergent trends – driven by forces related to increased international competition and European integration – have shaped recent reforms of the governance systems of these European capital cities.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, Politics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe, Paris, London, and Berlin

35. Transforming Competitiveness in European Transition Economies: The Role of Foreign Direct Investment

Author:
Jasminka Sohinger
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become one of the main drivers of globalization and integration of the European transition economies into the world economy, especially the European Union. Its growth enhancing capacity has played a significant role in transforming their competitiveness, both locally and on international markets, and its propensity to stimulate institution buliding is changing both economic and political landscapes in the region. The economic conditionality of FDI and the EU access-driven reforms are working hand in hand in helping the goals of transition and the convergence process. The achievement of both goals is seen as the best guarantor of peace and security in the region.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Europe

36. Copying the Nasdaq Stock Market in Europe: Supranational Politics and the Convergence-Divergence Debate

Author:
Elliot Posner
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Financial arrangements reflect political bargains. Like national labor regimes, the formal and informal rules and relationships governing the allocation of financial resources distinguish one type of capitalist society from another. How firms are financed shapes companies and industries and affects the risks citizens must bear, how they save for retirement, where they work, their job security and ability to buy homes, and the disparity between rich and poor. Leading theories provide increasingly inadequate explanations for changing institutional arrangements in western European finance. They emphasize convergence to global standards and the causal effects of either increased levels of mobile capital or the diffusion of ideas. Or else they describe change within a national trajectory and attribute it primarily to domestic politics, national historical institutions and path dependency. They exclude the possibility of independent regional-level causes. My empirical study of changing financial arrangements for smaller European companies between 1977 and 2003 reveals causes rooted firmly in European Union politics. Neither global forces nor national institutions were primarily responsible for drawing the stock exchanges of Europe into cross-border competition and prompting them to create new US-style markets. Instead, supranational political entrepreneurs, acting with relative autonomy, largely drove this pattern of institutional change. In pushing beyond the international-domestic dichotomy and emphasizing the independent effects of European-level politics, my argument contributes to a growing body of detailed empirical research on the national and global impact of the EU. It also provides more sustained analysis of the causes, mechanisms and effects of adopting US institutional forms outside American borders.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
America and Europe

37. Industrialization and Urbanization: Did the Steam Engine Contribute to the Growth of Cities in the United States?

Author:
Sukkoo Kim
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Industrialization and urbanization are seen as twin processes of economic development. However, the exact nature of their causal relationship is still open to considerable debate. This paper uses firm-level data from the manuscripts of the decennial censuses between 1850 and 1880 to examine whether the adoption of the steam engine as the primary power source by manufacturers during industrialization contributed to urbanization. While the data indicate that steam-powered firms were more likely to locate in urban areas than water-powered firms, the adoption of the steam engine did not contribute substantially to urbanization.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

38. La Interminable Posguerra: La Escritura De Enriqueta Antolin En Los Años Noventa

Author:
Alicia Goicoechea Redondo
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
This paper seeks to explain why the Civil War and the post-war period are dominant themes in the Spanish novels published in the 90s. Those of Enriqueta Antolin are not unique, for the theme of the post-war appears regularly in the works of both men and women authors. The paper draws on historians and analyzes a short story and four novels of Antolin to reveal her literary art and find an historical explanation for the persistent obsession with this theme.
Topic:
Demographics and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

39. Mothers and Daughters in Transition and Beyond

Author:
Emilie L. Bergmann
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
With Spain's political changes, including the enfranchisement of women, in the late 1970s, and feminist theories that challenged stereotypical views of motherhood, Spanish women writers began to create more varied depictions. This essay briefly discusses the work of Montserrat Roig, Esther Tusquets, Ana Maria Moix, Nuria Amat, and Maria Mercè Roca, but its focus is on two writers' inscription of motherhood in terms of autonomy and mutual dependency: Carmen Martín Gaite's creation of maternal 'interlocutors,' and Soledad Puértolas's memoir, Con mi madre (2001) in which she writes with extraordinary honesty of the closeness and the silences she shared with her mother.
Topic:
Demographics, Gender Issues, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

40. Out of the Glass Niche and into the Swimming Pool: the Transformation of the Sirena figure in Concha Méndez's Surtidor: Poesías

Author:
Nicole Altamirano
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
The present study is an exploration of revisionist mythmaking in Concha Méndez's Surtidor: poesías (1928), specifically of the Generation of 27 poet's appropriation and inscription of the androcentric myth of the siren/mermaid into female discourse, as seen through three poems: "Nadadora," "Natación," and "Bar". Through an analysis of these poems I show that Méndez dismantles the conventional "sirena" figure and revises her to suit a modern woman. In her appropriation of the "sirena," Méndez replaces the antiquated siren/ mermaid of masculine hegemonic discourse with an athletic, capable, and liberated water woman who decides her own destiny. In presenting a woman who frees herself from the restrictions of male subjectivity, Concha Méndez proposes an alternative model for female iconography—a siren singing a song rarely listened to, a song of feminine freedom and self-determination that would set the poet apart from her contemporaries for many years.
Topic:
Demographics, Education, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Europe