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5151. Between Non-Intervention and the Protection of Human Rights: A Moral Argument in Defence of Humanitarian Intervention

Author:
Oana Florina Pop
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Although humanitarian intervention has been a recurrent issue in moral and political philosophy for some years, much disagreement over its moral justifiability persists among scholars. The common denominator of previous views is their reliance on the assumption that solving the moral problem of humanitarian intervention comes down to making a choice between preserving sovereignty or protecting human rights. The present thesis follows a different strategy: it proceeds from an understanding of the moral puzzle humanitarian intervention presents us with by exploring the philosophical underpinnings of sovereignty and human rights. I argue that humanitarian intervention is morally justified when human rights violations are purposive, systematic, extensive, and preventing or ending them represents an emergency, because it aims to restore a genuine form of sovereignty, consistent with its moral rationale (the sovereignty-centered argument). Additional requirements deriving from this purpose further constrain the justifiability of humanitarian intervention.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
United Nations

5152. Alexander Mühlen. International Negotiations: Confrontation, Competition, Cooperation (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2010)

Author:
Dylan Kissane
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Successful negotiators, remarked author Jim Hennig, have formed the habit of doing those things that unsuccessful negotiators dislike and will not do. Armed with Alexander Mühlen's new political negotiation manual, the student of international negotiation will at the very least know what is expected of a master of conciliation and, more likely, emerge from their reading with a deep understanding of negotiation tools, tactics and strategy. Heavy with specific and relevant examples from the international political and business spheres and including four detailed practical role play activities aimed at student and professional readers, Mühlen's book could well serve as a core text for tertiary students in both Bachelor and Master's degree programs.

5153. Mojeed Olujinmi A. Alabi and Wahab Olasupo Egbewole (eds.) Perspectives on the Legislature in the Government of Nigeria (Kingdom of Morocco African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development, 2010).

Author:
Alexander B. Makulilo
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The legislature remains an important institution of democracy worldwide. It is the home of the elected representatives of the people and often largely responsible for law making, budgeting as well as overseeing the powers of the executive. In Africa, as elsewhere in the Third World, parliaments have had a checkered history. The executive arm of the government, more often than not, has monopolized political space, normally through excessive ruling party discipline, thereby undermining the powers of legislatures. Yet some countries in the region have experienced a history of military coups with the consequence of halting democratic practices and the functions of legislatures. Nigeria is one country in which military coups became the order of the day. With the restoration of democratic governance in Nigeria, the newly instituted legislature is a clear symbol that distinguishes democratic governance from the authoritarian past. Perspective on the Legislature in the Government of Nigeria is a much needed study to understand how this institution functions in a nascent democratic nation like Nigeria.
Political Geography:
Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco

5154. Graham Smith, Democratic Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen Participation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Author:
Daniela Sirinic
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Resurgence and reappraisal of democracies and democratic ideals in the 21st century has surely received its due share of academic attention. However, growing discontent with the existing forms and practices of representative democracy has facilitated the emergence and revival of ideas of deliberative and direct democracy. As a critical examination of the existing practices of 'democratic innovations', Graham Smith's book is a systematic and coherent collection of previously disengaged thoughts, practices and criticisms that were under-analyzed in the literature. Moreover, as a unique amalgam of democratic theory and new practices, it is the first comprehensive study of the different forms of democratic innovations.
Political Geography:
New York

5155. Upendra Chidella, Parameshwar Rama Bhat and Vikram Singh Sirola, In Defense of Liberal-Pluralism (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009).

Author:
Karina Shyrokykh
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Diversity of opinions, claims and actions are an undeniable fact of any society. There were many books devoted to the discussion of the ways in which diversity should be treated. Kantian and Neo-Kantian philosophers appealed to universality of reason and higher-order values, Rawls appealed to equality and justice. The authors of the book claim that both arguments are not enough to provide a background for the interpersonal framework, they see a solution of the problem in liberal-pluralism which essentially combines Kantian and Rawlsian arguments. They argue that the key to the problem is reasonability which should be based on principles of equality, justice, rights, fairness, cooperation, reciprocity, and tolerance.

5156. Larbi Touaf and Soumia Boutkhil (eds.), The World as a Global Agora: Critical Perspectives on Public Space (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

Author:
Viktoria Potapkina
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Public spaces have for centuries played an important role in the formation and development of societies, both as a physical space for gathering and debating, as well as a symbolic notion representing the core values of democracy. Such places have developed in a way that reflects the beliefs, public values, as well as the culture and a sense of community for the inhabitants of many areas. Public spaces remain a crucial concept in many developed and developing societies, as well as a vital component of the more traditional communities around the world. Nevertheless, as our ever more globalizing and liberalizing planet continues on its path of economic commercialization, privatization and subtle fragmentation, public spaces begin taking on new appearances. As public spaces form and deform under the influence of the present day media and information technology, they seem to morph into a new concept, slowly losing their initial shape and purpose, while nonetheless remaining a fundamental principle of participatory democracy and an essential component of public life, regardless of what shape they take. Modern developing and traditional societies all tend to continue valuing the symbolic significance of public space, as it is grounded in the “collective socio-political consciousness as the basis for a general sense of civic action.” (pp. xi). This is the common denominator for the essays on architecture , sociology, gender, and literary criticisms that place themselves around the debates about the concept of public space presented in The World as a Global Agora: Critical Perspectives on Public Space. The essays presented in the book originate from a two- day conference on public space, held at the Faculty of Letters at Mohammed I University in Oujda, Morocco in 2007, in itself a significant event as it was being held in a country with no historic precedents of such institutions.
Political Geography:
Morocco

5157. Silja Häusermann, The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe – Modernization in Hard Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Author:
Imre Szabó
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Human imagination is more easily captured by spectacular, one-off events than by more long-term, but equally important processes. Social scientists cannot completely escape this fascination with sudden changes and ruptures either. Usually they are more concerned with revolutions and rapid overhauls of social systems (like the Thatcherite reforms) than with “longue durée” phenomena. Their bias is reinforced by practical considerations as well: when studying interruptive events, it is easier to distinguish between new and old, between “innovators” and “conservatives”. When it comes to long-term transformational dynamics, it may be difficult to recognize change at all. Boundaries between the old and the new are often blurred, and traditional and newly emerging institutions may coexist. What can be even harder is to explore the causes of the change and the role that different political actors played during the process. Despite all these difficulties, there are a few promising works that deal with long-term transformations of socio-political systems. Silja Hä usermann's book, The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe – Modernization in Hard Times certainly belongs to this group.
Political Geography:
Europe

5158. Abrajano, Marisa A. and Michael R. Alvarez, New Faces, New Voices: The Hispanic Electorate in America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).

Author:
Ksenia Krauer-Pacheco
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In recent years, politicians and researchers in the United States have become more aware of the importance of the Hispanic electorate because of the ever increasing Latino population. This, in turn, has spurred a growing interest in its political behavior and preferences. In this context, Marisa A. Abrajano and R. Michael Alvarez's most recent book represents a good analysis of the largest minority group in the United States. New faces, new voices: the Hispanic electorate in America resulted from a research project aimed at understanding the political behavior of Hispanics in the United States since the late 1990s. Two main goals were successfully achieved in the pages of the book: firstly, to demonstrate why the Hispanic electorate is such a diverse and complex group, particularly when compared to other ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States; and secondly, to dispel some of the pieces of conventional wisdom about the Hispanic electorate, many of which have affected the way in which campaigns, elected officials, the media, and even the average American voter, perceive this group.
Topic:
Political Violence
Political Geography:
United States and America

5159. Bonnie Honing, Emergency Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Author:
Martino Bianchi
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
A wide debate about emergency politics in democracy is particularly welcome in a period in which long-lasting concern about security in the Western world is now coupled with an economic crisis whose effects are still not clear and whose development are unforeseeable. This new contribution, written by Bonnie Honig, is hence highly interesting as it tries to disclose the links between the normal democratic politics and the discretionary politics which occurs in emergency situations.
Topic:
Politics

5160. Nidhi Trehan and Nando Sigona (eds.), Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Mobilization, and the Neo-liberal Order (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Author:
Ivana Tomovska
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Romani communities throughout Western, Eastern and Southeast European countries experience poverty, socio-economic marginalization with additional increasing intolerance and discrimination by the majority population. The marginalization involves exclusion from labour markets, exclusion and segregation within the education system, difficult access to services including healthcare services, extreme forms of spatial segregation; in a word, exclusion from the right to exercise active citizenship. In addition, Romani people experience very concrete security issues such as: police brutality, racism, intolerance and violent outbursts against them. With Romani issues on the raise one cannot help but wonder what politics and policy actions are taking place around those issues. Who is creating the politics, what are the roles and degrees of influence by internal movements within the Romani constituencies as well as external influences? Many of these questions are addressed in Nidhi Trehan's and Fernando (Nando) Sigona's Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe.
Political Geography:
Europe