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Just over twenty years into its new era of democracy, South African foreign policy appears to be undergoing important changes in orientation and global positioning. Indeed, post-apartheid South African foreign policy has been steadily shifting away from a preoccupation with more traditional partnerships to developing alliances and coalitions with emerging economies and actors seeking to reform the global governance order. The paper seeks to understand the implications of this shift for South Africa's relationship with its most pivotal and enduring traditional ‘partner' – the United Kingdom. Thus, the paper proposes that this relationship can be best understood by considering it on different and at least partially contradictory levels, reflecting South Africa's own ambiguous identity as an emerging middle power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Historia is the property of Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Kilmainham Gaol (1796-1924) became the de facto holding center for political prisoners in Ireland by the mid-nineteenth century. Officially closing in 1910, it reopened a number of times for 'emergencies' before its final closure after the Irish Civil War (1922-23). After 1924 it lay abandoned until reopening as a heritage attraction in the early 1960s. It was taken into state protection in 1986. Using a range of graffiti assemblages predominantly dating from 1910 onwards this paper will explore the 'imperial debris' of contested narratives of meaning, ownership, and identity that the prison walls continue to materialize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on the premise that participatory democracy needs active citizens, and active citizens need civic competencies. The goal of this study is to illustrate previous research into active citizenship and civic competencies and to add the own concept of the authors to the literature. The article also provides empirical results from a survey into active citizenship carried out among citizens in Győr, Hungary, 2017. A total of 254 citizens filled out the online and offline questionnaire. The survey sample methods included random and snowball sampling. The sample does not represent the population of Győr, 64.3 per cent were women and about half of the sample were graduate citizens, so the results can be interpreted only to the respondents. Results offer an insight into what citizens think of the concept of active citizenship and which civic competencies they regard as important active participation in society. The article also demonstrates guidance for practitioners and researchers and it adds to the literature on active citizenship. It is possible to believe that knowing what kind of civic competencies people need could be useful to know how to be more active in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few innovations in democratic institutional design are considered as fundamental as the introduction of voting through the use of a uniform, official, and secret ballot. One account claims that the official ballot liberates dependent voters from the dictates of local elites, thereby enhancing democratic competition. Another argues that in contexts of widespread illiteracy, its adoption may be tantamount to a suffrage restriction. This article adjudicates between these views by drawing upon an original data set of municipal‐level voting returns from Brazil's Second Republic (1945–1964). The unique staggered rollout of the official ballot during this period permits one to assess its impact with unprecedented accuracy. The article finds that the primary consequence of ballot reform was suffrage restriction. Rather than liberating poor and dependent voters, the official ballot made it exceedingly difficult for these individuals to vote. Moreover, parliamentary debates indicate that this was an anticipated and intended effect of the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the institutional and contextual factors that facilitate the election of political newcomers as heads of government in democratic regimes. Using data from 870 democratic elections between 1945 and 2015, it is found that political newcomers are more likely to be successful in presidential systems, in new democracies and when party systems are weakly institutionalised. The election of politically inexperienced candidates is also related to governmental performance. Political newcomers are more successful when the economic performance of the government is bad and when the government engages in high-level corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuban Studies is the property of University of Pittsburgh Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Economic voting is a widely accepted regularity in the political science literature, yet most work on the subject either assumes that economic performance is a direct result of policy making or, more recently, argues that voters are able to identify when this is not the case. Our article challenges these claims by showing that, in a large subset of Latin American countries, both presidential popularity and prospects of reelection strongly depend on factors unambiguously exogenous to presidents' policy choices. These findings advance the literature on assignment of responsibility for economic performance and pose important implications for democratic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how political parties in France, West Germany, and Italy conceptualized democracy and challenged the conceptions of democracy of their political adversaries between the end of the 1940s and the early 1960s. It studies from a comparative perspective the different conceptions of democracy held by Christian democrat, Left-wing, and Gaullist political actors and shows how these diverged on key issues such as the economic system, foreign policy, the separation of powers, electoral systems, and the use of state institutions in the defence of democracy against anti-democratic forces. In this way, the article reveals how in the first fifteen years after the Second World War, government and opposition parties disputed each other's democratic credentials and political legitimacy, and it thereby reconsiders the claim that there existed a broad consensus on the meaning of democracy among political elites in post-war Western Europe. It is argued that these different conceptions of democracy only started to converge after they had clashed during political crises at the turn of the 1960s in all three states. This study thereby contributes to an enhanced understanding the formation of the post-war democratic order in Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article overviews the history of autocratic elections since 1815 and then tests how a country's experience with autocratic elections influences both democratization and democratic survival. To comprehensively capture this history, the study employs original measures of Robert Dahl's electoral dimensions of contestation and participation. First, it shows that autocratic elections have been common for centuries, but that their character has changed dramatically over time. Whereas high contestation almost always preceded high participation prior to 1940, the opposite occurs in modern regimes. Secondly, it demonstrates that a country's history of contestation predicts both democratization and democratic survival, whereas participation is positive for survival but generally negative for democratization. Thus, democracies are more likely to survive if they experience autocratic elections prior to democratizing, which has implications for democracy promotion and future political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and why do regime type and interstate war affect government spending? We argue that a political leader allocates scarce resources between social and military expenditures as a function of their relative efficiency in securing her political survival. We derive four hypotheses concerning how mobilization for and demobilization from interstate war affects government spending differently in democratic and autocratic regimes. Compared to democracies, autocracies should increase military spending to a greater degree during wartime and decrease military spending to a greater extent following a war. Autocracies also should cut social spending more during an interstate war and increase social spending more during the process of demobilization from war than democracies. Our analyses of all states in the international system from 1950 to 2001 yield support for our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence of protest expansion both in the United States and abroad has stimulated theoretical discussion of a "movement society," with some arguing that protest activities are becoming a standard feature of democratic politics. In advancing this claim, many have highlighted the role of domestic factors-for example, generational change or economic affluence-without fully accounting for the possibility that international dynamics may play an important role as well. The lack of work is surprising not only because the trend in protest is international in scope, but also because work in comparative sociology suggests globalization may make an important contribution. This study addresses the empirical gap by examining how political globalization (as measured by memberships in international organizations) and economic globalization (as measured by trade activity and foreign investment) influence trends in protest participation. Using data from World Values Surveys of 37,716 respondents in 17 advanced democracies merged with data on several national and international indicators, this study examines how the probability of participating in protest has changed over time as a result of these two forms of globalization. The results of multivariate, multilevel analysis combined with simulations indicate that trends in political globalization have expanded protest activity, while trends in economic globalization have limited that expansion. These results suggest that social movement scholarship should continue to examine the implications of globalization for protest behavior and other social movement dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores L. T. Hobhouse's transformation of liberal internationalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. It argues that Hobhouse's thought contributes to understanding dilemmas within the frame of liberal internationalism and the emergence of international functionalism. Using a philosophical approach, Hobhouse tackled international concerns throughout his life, alongside J. A. Hobson, Gilbert Murray, James Bryce, H. N. Brailsford, Norman Angell, and G. L. Dickinson. He restated a belief in human progress and association in ever-greater circles. But he noted, contra former hopes, that nationalism furthered democracy only briefly, and that liberal democracy remained incapable of bringing about effective international cooperation and moral universalism. In order to resolve this impasse, Hobhouse suggested substituting political with economic democracy on an international scale. The aim was to create an international functional organisation consisting of vocational and civic associations and states, which would allow individuals to entertain multiple, overlapping, and transnational loyalties. He thus anticipated proposals for global reform that became increasingly popular after the end of World War II. However, in spite of his concern with domestic social equality and his borrowing from international socialism, Hobhouse failed to qualify his internationalism with an analogous interest in equality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revista del Centro de Investigación. Universidad La Salle is the property of Universidad La Salle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the establishment of republics in Germany and Austria after the First World War, many conservatives and those on the radical Right challenged this new form of government on the grounds that it was un-German. This article explores the attempts made by the defenders of the Weimar and Austrian Republics, or republicans, to legitimize parliamentary democracy. It argues that the großdeutsch idea (the historical idea that a German nation state should include Austria) and support for an Anschluss (an Austro-German political union) were central to republicans’ energetic efforts to win over sceptics and attack the claims of their political opponents. Members of the Weimar Coalition parties and the Social Democratic Party of Austria drew a distinction between großdeutsch (greater German) and alldeutsch (pan-German) conceptions of nationhood, and thereby attempted to articulate a form of German nationalism that was compatible with a democratic body politic, a pluralistic society and peaceful international relations. They aimed at nothing less than fashioning their own version of German nationalism, one that stood in direct opposition to the exclusionary and violent nationalisms of the political Right. In revealing the pervasiveness of the großdeutsch idea at this time, this article points to the necessity of looking at developments on both sides of the Austro-German border when considering topics such as the redefinition of Germanness and the creation of democracy in interwar central Europe. Additionally, it demonstrates that support for transborder German nationalism was not simply the prerogative of the radical right after 1918. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the Cold War, a number of societies established stable democracies despite having low levels of modernisation and relatively few democratic neighbours. Threshold levels of modernisation and neighbouring democratic societies are consistently related to the endurance of democracy. Meanwhile, the Cold War superpowers often supported autocracies, making it even more difficult to maintain democracy. Analysing these stable but ‘deviant’ democracies provides an opportunity to examine how domestic factors influence regime stability. In particular, such historical cases advance understanding of contemporary patterns of democratic stability. Previous research has not systematically identified deviant democracies before 1989. This research note does so using a large-Nanalysis of 125 societies during the first phase of the third wave of democratisation, from 1975 to 1988. It identifies 11 deviant democracies, including Bolivia, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turkey. 冷战期间，若干社会建立了稳定的民主体制，尽管它们现代化的程度较低，左邻右舍民主化的不多。民主的持久与否一向与一个国家的现代化基础水平、也与左邻右舍是否为民主政体有关。而冷战期间超级大国往往支持独裁政权，这又使得民主更难维持。分析那些稳定却并非标准的民主国家，使我们得以了解国内因素如何影响政体的稳定性。这些历史的案例增强了我们对当代民主稳定模式的理解。以往的研究没有系统地确认1989年以前的非标准民主国家。本文对第三次民主浪潮第一期125个国家包括玻利维亚、博茨瓦纳、哥伦比亚、科斯特黎加、多米尼加、洪都拉斯、印度、牙买加、毛里求斯、特立尼达和多巴哥、土耳其等做了大量案例分析。 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the progression of the intelligence services in Mongolia in the 21st century, as the country continues to make a democratic transition in government. The author provides a brief historical background of the Mongolian intelligence services dating back to the third century BCE, emphasizing that their services were the most sophisticated during the Mongolian Empire from 1206 to 1368. The author discusses the democratic reform of Mongolian intelligence organizations, which began in April of 1990.

By obliterating the barrier that had separated Russian scholarship from practical applications, World War I recast the relationship of universities and the government while strengthening academia's bonds with bourgeois capital and democratic republicanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the First World War the Netherlands remained neutral. The Dutch did not fight, kill, die or in any way suffer to the extent the belligerents did. The chief problems and questions raised by the First World War accordingly had a comparatively limited impact on Dutch society. The question remains, however, to what extent a neutral country like the Netherlands did experience the First World War. That question is addressed in this article by looking at Dutch public debate on the war during the period 1914–1919. Despite political and military neutrality the war and the specific Dutch position and identity in relation to this war and its possible outcomes were passionately discussed in public debate. The ways in which this debate developed demonstrate how the Great War, when defined as a cultural war, heavily influenced nations that were not militarily involved. Moreover, this approach shows us how neutrality was (re-)defined in this period, both by neutral countries themselves and by the belligerent powers. These findings thus help us understand ideas about belligerency and neutrality in the period of the two world wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the ‘property-owning democracy’ has been one of the ideological and rhetorical constants of twentieth-century Conservatism. Coined by Noel Skelton in 1923 the concept has been periodically revived, renewed, and reworked by subsequent generations of Conservatives. But although the concept has remained a constant, its meaning has transformed as generations of Conservatives have reinterpreted and redefined the concepts that comprise it. As the Conservative understandings of ‘property’ and ‘democracy’ changed over the course of the twentieth century, so too has the meaning of the ‘property-owning democracy’. Probably the most significant of these shifts occurred under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s and 1980s. The growing influence of economic liberalism in the party led to a redefinition of the ‘property-owning democracy’ and a greater stress on its central role within the party’s strategy to transform Britain. This article will examine how the meaning of the ‘property-owning democracy’ was transformed during this key period in the ideological transformation of not only the Conservative Party but ultimately of British politics as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to contextualize support after the Second World War for European integration in Germany, analysing continuities between interwar, wartime and postwar debates about unifying Europe both within and beyond Germany. Using such a temporal framing serves to highlight that many groups advocating European integration in the post-1945 period emerged out of more long-standing internationalist communities, not all of whom had supported international political frameworks and cooperation from a pro-democratic standpoint. Rather, a significant number of groups on the Left and Right sought to construct international bodies as a means of restraining what they saw as the harmful potential of majoritarian democratic nation-states. The article is therefore a contribution to recent research initiatives that have more critically assessed the growth in support for a united Europe after the Second World War and which have enriched the study of European integration from an earlier focus on primarily diplomatic processes and institutional histories. A case is made for an intellectual history of European integration, and the article highlights the importance of intellectual and political communities that argued for a Third Way Europe. The groups featured are not simply German organizations, but are communities whose membership, connections and impact were transnational. The article therefore seeks to challenge the approach typified by Alan Milward's important text, The European Rescue of the Nation State, which saw nation states as the major players in the history of integration, and their leaders as largely uninfluenced by the activities of civil society organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relative importance that political parties attach to the socio-economic and religious issue dimensions can be determined by the kinds of partners they seek in order to form government coalitions. When political parties can be classified as secular left, secular right, and religious centre parties, centre-left and centre-right coalitions show that the socio-economic dimension is the dominant one, and left-right coalitions indicate that the religious dimension predominates. Out of a total of 190 years of government coalitions that can be analysed in this way in ten countries from 1919 to 1979, the socio-economic dimension predominated eight times as frequently as the religious dimension. The much greater salience of the socio-economic dimension is found in all ten countries without striking variations during the entire period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]