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11. HOW LIBERAL IS NEOLIBERALISM? RETHINKING THE CONCEPTIONS OF THE WELFARE STATE, LEGISLATIVE ORGANS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND COMPETITION IN HAYEK’S THOUGHT

Author:
Selma TOKTAŞ
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
With the expansion of US-led economic policy following the economic depression of the 1970s and the proliferation of new information and communication technologies, the 1980s became a crucial period signaling dramatic changes all around the world. By the end of these years, the Keynesian economy, which accredited states as active and interventionist players in the economy in order to ensure both growth and equity, began to break down. In this period economic liberalism gained power again and political and economic theories and practices turned towards neoliberalism. As a result, deregulation, privatization and the withdrawal of the state from many areas were accelerated. All these changes were significant and affected the structure of almost everything, including education, culture, life and trends in thought. Friedrich A. von Hayek was one of the pioneers of this transformation. Therefore, this descriptive study attempts to understand the points where neoliberalism combines with liberalism and how it is separated from liberalism through Hayek's views about the welfare state, legislative body, social justice, and competition terms. In other words, this study aims to explore the extent to which Hayek’s neoliberalism is a continuation or a break from liberalism.
Topic:
Economic structure, Neoliberalism, Social Justice, Welfare, and Liberalism
Political Geography:
United States, North America, and Global Focus

12. ACKNOWLEDGING THE FLEXIBILITIES OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT: ENSURING THE RIGHT TO ACCESS TO MEDICINES OR A STRATEGY OF PASSIVE REVOLUTION?

Author:
Sevgi BALKAN-ŞAHİN
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
The Doha Ministerial Declaration on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and Public Health adopted in November 2001 clarified the right to use the TRIPS flexibilities to promote public health. Examining the hegemonic struggle of opposing social forces from a neo-Gramscian perspective, the paper attributes this outcome to the strategy of trasformismo used by market-oriented social forces to legitimize the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and prevent resistance against the market-driven TRIPS Agreement. It argues that although non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, Third World Network, and Oxfam worked as a counter-hegemonic force to ensure the access of least developed countries to generic versions of patented drugs, flexibilities confirmed by the Doha Declaration can be seen more as a strategy of trasformismo to absorb counter-hegemonic ideas than the counter-hegemonic groups’ successful incorporation of the right to ensure public health into the TRIPS Agreement.
Topic:
Health, World Trade Organization, Hegemony, Health Care Policy, NGOs, and Public Health
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Asia, and North America

13. CANDIDATE SELECTION PROCESS AS A TOOL TO SHAPE A PARTY'S DOMINANT COALITION: THE CASE OF THE AKP IN TURKEY

Author:
Gül ARIKAN AKDAĞ
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Since its first incumbency after the 2002 general elections Turkish politics has witnessed considerable changes in the policies of the AKP in economic and political realms. Academics have tried to understand the nature and possible causes of these policy changes mostly focusing on the electoral concerns. This study provides a different dimension to the debate by focusing on the party organization as a possible dynamic preventing / enabling this kind of a policy change. As such, it relates the policy changes of the AKP to the changes in the inner structure of the party organization. This kind of change is tracked through the analysis of the social and political backgrounds of the members of the party's main decision organ-the Central Decision and Administrative Committee.
Topic:
Elections, Democracy, Political structure, and State Building
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Asia, and Ankara

14. CODE OF CONDUCT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO REFORMATION OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

Author:
Mehmet Halil Mustafa BEKTAŞ
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
The United Nations Security Council's (SC) intermittent failure to perform its main duty of maintaining international peace and security has led to a longstanding debate about its reform. The ongoing Syrian crisis has resulted in a significant number of casualties, and has cost the international community heavily. The SC has thus become the subject both of severe criticism and of calls to take action. The inertia that results from an insistence on the use of the veto power has stimulated politicians to develop alternative methods. In this regard, some argue that there must be a Code of Conduct for the Council in order to enable it to react in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Proponents of a Code of Conduct for the SC have naturally directed their attention to the veto power, the main suggestion being that it must be restricted in these extreme circumstances. Three main initiatives have consequently been developed and have received a considerable degree of support from states. Yet their deficiencies, including a specific procedural trigger and a process by which an alternative course of action could be initiated should one or more of the permanent five Council members (P5) refuse to refrain from using their veto power, have largely been overlooked. The current proposal aims to examine these initiatives and make suggestions to remedy these shortcomings. It first outlines previous efforts to reform the Council, then examines the suggested Code of Conduct, and finally proposes a new Code of Conduct and explains why a procedural trigger and a backup procedure must be provided. To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no academic work on the Code of Conduct for the Council; there are only a few comments by politicians. This study will therefore make a contribution to the literature.
Topic:
Genocide, International Cooperation, United Nations, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

15. FEMALE STEREOTYPES IN LEBANESE CONTEMPORARY SONGS: A CASE STUDY OF TEN SONGS

Author:
Roy Jreijiry
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Many studies have shown that popular music is a dynamic medium in the construction of personal and social identities. This study analyses the image of women in ten Lebanese songs produced between 2010 and 2014; each song ranked as big hits. Typical of contemporary popular songs, these songs do not accord to the woman the value of an equal partner of the man. While rarely mentioning the ideas of sharing, exchanging, or reciprocity, they circulate many stereotypes such as the threatened/beaten woman, the housewife won through presents and flattery, the woman under the care of a man, and the woman as an owned and sexual object.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Culture, Women, Feminism, and Music
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

16. LEBANON IS BECOMING A NEW OIL AND GAS PRODUCER UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES OF ITS CIVIL SOCIETY

Author:
Laury Haytayan
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This short article is an overview of the recent oil and gas developments in Lebanon with a focus on the role of civil society in holding the decision makers accountable. From one side, it highlights the governance challenges and political uncertainties facing Lebanon. Corruption, ineffective oversight bodies and political deadlocks are some of the many challenges facing the country. From the other side, it puts emphasis on the role of civil society as the alternative oversight body capable of overseeing the management of the sector. A strong and informed civil society has a role in taking a seat on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) multi-stakeholder group, in assisting the government in formulating policies and in informing the citizens about the many complex issues related to the oil and gas sector in the country.
Topic:
Civil Society, Oil, Gas, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

17. RETHINKING, RETURNING, REFLECTING

Author:
V Spike Peterson
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
After almost four decades of feminist International Relations (IR), I here rethink the journey this has entailed – for myself and others -- and contemplate where it has taken us. I first consider my own introduction to the discipline of IR and interpret activist commitments of the ‘first generation’ of participants. I then return to early developments and initial questions that fostered boundary-transgressing feminist contributions. Recalling three ‘imagined’ critical conversations – regarding empirical criteria, epistemological frames and normative/political strategies – I then reflect on the feminist journey of many into, within, and increasingly beyond the constraining boundaries of disciplinary IR.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Intersectionality
Political Geography:
Global South

18. QUEER FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: UNEASY ALLIANCES, PRODUCTIVE TENSIONS

Author:
Darcy Leigh
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This article examines the ‘uneasy alliance’ between Feminist IR and Queer IR. The article focuses on three areas of tension and continuity between the fields: (1) sexuality, sexual deviance and gender variance; (2) the roles of liberalism in gendered, sexualized and racialized violence; and (3) binaries relating to sex, gender and sexuality. The article argues that it is around tensions between Queer and Feminist IR that a Queer Feminist IR can be productively articulated. In particular, a Queer Feminist IR should: centre women and femmes as well as sexuality and gender variance; disrupt of binaries and fixed identities without losing the political leverage that sometimes comes with them; and acknowledge entanglements with the institutions Feminist and Queer IR seek to transform while also resisting being neutralized by assimilation. Keywords: International Relations, Feminism, Queer, Gender, Sexuality.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Sexuality
Political Geography:
Global

19. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AS WE ENTER THE ANTHROPOCENE

Author:
David Hunter
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the current state of global environmental governance with an eye toward highlighting the challenges that are presented by the scale and speed of environmental change that we are now witnessing. The scale of anthropogenic environmental change has led to what many now dub the Anthropocene - reflecting that humanity is changing our natural planetary systems in ways that have fundamental implications on a geologic scale. It also harkens in an era when humanity will be called on to consciously manage on a planetary level massive environmental change and the economic and social impacts that arise from this change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, International Cooperation, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and North America

20. POLITICO-ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA

Author:
Aykut Shepherd
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Environmental issues have been on the international agenda for so long. However, International Relations (IR) theory acknowledged the environmental problem belatedly. When dealing with it, IR theory generally saw this problem as an annex to its central concerns. So, the environment as a research subject is considered either an issue of conflict or of cooperation from the perspectives of realism and liberal institutionalism respectively. By questioning this sort of consideration as a starting point, this article discusses the international environmental problem within the context of complexity and multiplicity of structural contradictions and overlapping and opposing interests of actors. The first section reveals the impasses of mainstream IR theory. The second section explores different aspects of the internationalization of the environment through a critical reassessment of state-centric understandings and problem-solving strategies. The interactions between national and international domains are also argued by employing normative environmental regulations. The last section examines the effects of corporations, states, international institutions and NGOs as main actors on the internationalization of the environment. This examination needs to take into consideration actor-structure relations. In other words, instead of separating politics from economics, and actors from capitalist structures at the domestic and international levels as does mainstream IR theory,
Topic:
Environment, Political structure, Institutionalism, and NGOs
Political Geography:
Europe and Middle East