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A strong tradition in democratic theory claims that only constitutions made with direct popular involvement can establish or deepen democracy. Against this view, we argue that new constitutions are likely to enhance liberal democracy when they emerge through a plural agreement among political elites with distinct bases of social support. Power dispersion during constitution writing induces the adoption of institutions that protect opposition forces from the arbitrary use of executive power without unduly impairing majority rule. However, since incumbents may renege on the bargain, the democratizing effect of politically plural constitutional agreements is likely to be larger in the short term, when the identity of negotiating political forces and the balance of power between them tend to remain stable. We find support for these arguments using an original global dataset on the origins of constitutions between 1900 and 2015 and a difference-in-differences design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a burgeoning literature on how to deal with populism in advanced liberal democracies, which puts a strong emphasis on legalist and pluralist methods. There is also a new and expanding literature that looks at the consequences of coups d'état for democracies by employing large-N data sets. These two recent literatures, however, do not speak to one another, based on the underlying assumption that coups against populists were a distinctly twentieth-century Latin American phenomenon. Yet the cases of Venezuela in 2002, Thailand in 2006 and Turkey in 2016 show that anti-populist coups have also occurred in the twenty-first century. Focussing on these cases, the article enquires about the extent to which military coups succeed against populists. The main finding is that although anti-populist coups may initially take over the government, populism survives in the long run. Thus, anti-populist coups fail in their own terms and they do not succeed in eradicating populism. In fact, in the aftermath of a coup, populism gains further legitimacy against what it calls repressive elites, while possibilities for democratisation are further eroded. This is because populists tap into existing socio-cultural divides and politically mobilise the hitherto underrepresented sectors in their societies that endure military interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The norm against chemical weapons (CW) is considered to be a strong and universal restraint against poisonous methods of warfare. Yet the repeated CW attacks during the Syrian civil war have raised questions about the robustness of this international norm. Under what conditions do third parties emphatically sanction violators of the norm? Adopting a historical approach, we analyse the discursive and contextual dynamics characterising the CW attacks since the early twentieth century. Employing process tracing, we consult a variety of rich archival resources including primary language documents to study a number of historical cases including late colonial wars during the interwar period, and Middle Eastern civil wars since the late twentieth century. Building on Judith Butler's distinction of grievable and ungrievable lives and Didier Fassin's notion of politics of life, we argue that the anti-CW norm has never had universal status and always remained conditional on a hierarchy of victims. CW attacks targeting certain groups have been more readily justifiable and generated ineffective and inconsistent third-party reactions. Consequently, certain groups, who are implicitly or explicitly perceived to be outside the pale of civilised order, remain more vulnerable to CW attacks than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in 1914. It argues that the conflict was an outcome of the long-term constitution of local government territories as patches of the state, making the international border simultaneously a boundary of the local state. Some scholars have seen the limited control of central governments over their borderlands and the intensification of local territorialities as signs of African state fragmentation and failure. But the article argues that this local territoriality should instead be seen as an outcome of ongoing state-formation processes in which state territory has been co-produced through local engagement and appropriation. The paper is thus of wider relevance beyond African or postcolonial history, firstly in contributing a spatial approach to studies of state formation which have sought to replace centre–periphery models with an emphasis on the centrality of the local state. Secondly it advances the broader field of borderlands studies by arguing that international boundaries have been shaped by processes of internal territorialisation as well as by the specific dynamics of cross-border relations and governance. Thirdly it advocates a historical and processual approach to understanding territory, arguing that the patchwork of these states has been fabricated and reworked over the past century, entangling multiple, changing forms and scales of territory in the ongoing constitution of state boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how classed identities are constituted through the socio-sartorial inscriptions of a working-class school and community in an Irish city in the twenty-first century. The data of the paper were generated through a wider three-year critical ethnography of a school community. The focus here is upon the identity work of the participants as it is connected to the school and the wider community. The article makes a particular contribution to the conversation of cultural constructions of class; in this instance through socio-sartorialism and how cultural capital is embodied and performed through people. The paper offers illustrative cases formed from participant interviews and an analysis of how socio-sartorial inscription contributes to the making of class in educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In British social mobility discourse, the rhetoric of fair access can obscure wider issues of social justice. While socio‐economic inequalities continue to shape young people's lives, sociological work on class dis‐identification suggests social class is less obviously meaningful as a source of individual and collective identity. This paper considers subjective understandings of the post‐16 education and employment landscape in this context, drawing on qualitative research exploring the aspirations of young men and women as they completed compulsory education in north‐west England, and the hopes their parents had for their future. It shows how unequal access to resources shaped the older generation's expectations for their children, although this was rarely articulated using the explicit language of class. Their children recognized they faced a difficult job market but embraced the idea that success was possible through hard work. Both generations drew moral boundaries and made judgments based on implicit classed discourses about undeserving others, while at the same time disavowing class identities. There was a more explicit recognition of gender inequality among the parents framed with reference to hopes for greater freedom for their daughters. Opportunities and inequalities were thus understood in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spain, the introduction of the new Diploma in Nursing in 1977 saw the role of nurses shifting from that of medical assistants with technical skills to being independent members of the healthcare team with specific responsibility for providing professional nursing care. Here, we analyse the evolution of the nursing profession in Spain following the transfer of nurse education to universities, doing so through interviews with the first generation of academic tutors. This was a qualitative study using the method of analytic induction and based on the principles of grounded theory. Participants were selected by means of theoretical sampling and then underwent in-depth interviews. Steps were taken to ensure the credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability of data. The main conclusion of the analysis is that there is a gap between a theoretical framework borrowed from the Anglo-American context and a nursing practice that, in Spain, has traditionally prioritised the application of technical procedures, a role akin to that of a medical assistant. It is argued that a key factor underlying the way in which nursing in Spain has evolved in recent decades is the lack of conceptual clarity regarding what the role of the professional nurse might actually entail in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper pursues an inquiry into the relationship between ethnicity and development in the largest authoritarian country in the contemporary world, the People’s Republic of China. It engages the theoretical literature on ethnic diversity and development in general, but also pays special attention to political economy logics unique to authoritarian systems. Focusing on the western part of China over a decade since the launch of China’s Western Development Program ( xibu da kaifa ) in 2000, this paper utilizes the data from two censuses (2000 and 2010) together with nighttime streetlight imagery data to analyze the overall relationship between ethnicity and development provision. It also analyzes changes in such a relationship during this period. The paper finds that ethnic minority concentration negatively correlates with economic development in both the years 2000 and 2010 across the western provinces. It also finds that counties in non-autonomous provinces, which are historically more integrated with the rest of China than autonomous provinces, have a positive and systematic correlation between changes in ethnic minority concentration and changes in development during the 10-year period. The counties in autonomous provinces, on the other hand, show the opposite trend. Using three case studies of Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang, the paper concludes that although there is in general a tendency for ethnic minority concentrated areas to be less developed, ultimately which groups prosper more or less depends upon specific economic development and which political control logics the Chinese state implements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing conflict literature tends to treat interdependence between rebel groups as a binary category: either groups are allied or unallied, fragmented or unified, interdependent or independent. Yet much of our qualitative knowledge suggests that interdependence is better understood as a matter of degree where certain groups exert a disproportionate influence over their counterparts. The challenge is how to identify the degree of interdependence in practice. As a solution, I conceptualize interdependence as a property of a system of interactions between rebel groups and government forces within and across borders. My approach is to model the entire system of interactions in order to test hypotheses related to the directionality of influence and the potential for military coordination between groups. I demonstrate the utility of this approach by examining the relationship between Pakistan and the two major factions which make up the Taliban organization – the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. I analyze the triangular system with a vector autoregressive model and monthly time series data on violent actions initiated by each group from January 2008 to February 2013. The substantive findings support much of the received wisdom concerning Pakistan’s disparate relationship to both groups, which is characterized by antagonism with the Pakistani Taliban and collusion with the Afghan Taliban. The results also suggest that the claims of interdependence between the two Taliban groups have been overstated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the effects of US drone strikes on terrorism in Pakistan. We find that drone strikes are associated with decreases in the incidence and lethality of terrorist attacks, as well as decreases in selective targeting of tribal elders. This matters for key ongoing debates. Some suggest that drone strikes anger Muslim populations and that consequent blowback facilitates recruitment and incites Islamist terrorism. Others argue that drone strikes disrupt and degrade terrorist organizations, reducing their ability to conduct attacks. We use detailed data on US drone strikes and terrorism in Pakistan from 2007-2011 to test each theory's implications. The available data do not enable us to evaluate if drone strikes resulted in increased recruitment, but the data do allow us to examine if these strikes resulted in changes in terrorist activities. While our findings do not suggest long-term effects, the results still lend some credence to the argument that drone strikes, while unpopular, bolster US counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The axial age debate has put big questions of social and cultural change back on the agenda of sociology. This paper takes this development as an occasion to reflect on how social thought works with (and against) nineteenth-century intellectual traditions in its efforts to understand history on a macro scale. Karl Jaspers, who initially formulated the axial age thesis in The Origin and Goal of History, revised the Hegelian account of world history by broadening the scope of the narrative to encompass all civilizations participating in the events of the first millennium BCE that saw the rise of major philosophical and religious traditions. However, his account, like the earlier philosophical accounts he seeks to improve upon, privileges cognitive developments over material practices and social interactions, and as such offers little to those seeking to make sense of how cultural patterns interact with others and spread. Here another social theorist engaging with Hegel, W. E. B. Du Bois, provides a helpful contrast. His account of the development of double-consciousness in 'Of Our Spiritual Strivings,' the opening chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, helps us to understand experiences of encounter and the perduring historical effects they may have. Du Bois' relational theory reminds us of the importance of unpacking abstractions and understanding processes in terms of social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This discussion contributes to the history of the colonial rule of law that governed market practice in India using the South Asian indigenous credit institution known as hundi. A centuries-old artery of credit for Indian merchant networks, and a living institution that has largely been driven underground by twenty-first-century laws, hundi provides a window into the dynamics of colonial law from the commercial and financial legislation of the 1880s to the final attempt to codify hundi in the 1960s and 1970s in a bid to bridge the growing disconnect between the Indian indigenous banking sector and modern banking. I chart the British colonial and post-independence history of hundi as means of understanding the wider political, legislative and economic dynamics of colonial state formation and the legacies of legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We need to remember that we went into Afghanistan to eject Al Qaeda, not to improve women's rights. But the very success of our mission left us with responsibilities. Much has been achieved in health, in education, in creating a tax base and in governance-the recent elections were a conspicuous success, largely ignored by the media. But many problems remain, not least corruption. And there is the ongoing struggle with the Taliban Now, after more than ten years of engagement, NATO combat troops will withdraw at the end of 2014. This does not mean the Afghans will be abandoned. There will still be high levels of support for training and logistics. But what will happen? On the evidence so far, the Afghan Forces are likely to be able to prevent the Taliban taking over as long as the international community continues to pay the multi-billion dollar bill to sustain them. There are some grounds for thinking that a negotiated settlement with the Taliban is not impossible, partly because over the last decade, much has changed in Afghanistan. But It is still a poor country, not (yet) a liberal western democracy. One prophecy can be made with some certainty: if we do not continue to provide support, especially financial support, the result will be a rapid reversion to instability and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is an attempt to analyse the contentious role of drone strikes in the context of the options available in the on-going fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and the Af-Pak region. There are significant legal issues here, both in terms of human rights and in terms of state sovereignty and independence, though there are those who argue that the concept of a “just war” provides adequate justification. Pragmatists focus on effectiveness. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are many individuals who lend their support to the drone attacks because they see no other alternative(s), given that the prospects for dialogue seems so unpromising. But however many jihadist leaders are killed, in drone strikes, other effective counter-insurgency action may provide a better option. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resumen A partir de datos de encuestas de hogares, los autores observan que las primas por calificación aumentaron en toda China entre 1995 y 2002, pero solo en las provincias costeras entre 2002 y 2007, año en que estas también registraron mayor desigualdad salarial y contribuyeron más a la desigualdad salarial urbana total. Según un modelo de efectos fijos estimado, la privatización explica la evolución del primer periodo, y la integración de China en la economía mundial, la del segundo. Reducir la desigualdad exige, según los autores, la reforma del Registro de Población Hukou, que obstaculiza la movilidad de los trabajadores calificados y posiblemente también el crecimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World War I was an epoch making event and its legacies have exerted dramatic impact on the unfolding of history as well as the study of history itself. The article introduces a commemorative volume focused on those varied legacies and their places in history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a report on a Franco-German historical conference on the historiography of contemporary history, held at the German Historical Institute in Paris, France, from October 17-19, 2013. Topics of discussion included sources for writing the history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the relationship between the social sciences and history, and the influence of time perception and time perspective on history.

The article discusses Iran's foreign policy in regards to the reported collapse of the Taliban Islamist group's regime in Afghanistan in 2001, focusing on the Iranian government's apparent two-prong policy which is designed to preserve the stability of Afghanistan's central government and oppose the presence of foreign forces from nations such as the U.S. Iran's alleged criticism of a 2012 U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement is mentioned, along with a historical overview of the relationship between Iran and Afghanistan,

The article reports on a conference on the historiography of contemporary history since the 1970s, held in Cologne, Germany, from May 23-24, 2013. Topics of discussion included the history of globalization, the representation of global economic dependency and interdependency in the mass media, and the economic history of Germany since the late 1980s.

A timeline is presented of events in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia for April-July 2013, including the shooting down of a suspected Hezbollah drone aircraft by Israel, an attack on a gay rights march in Tbilisi, Georgia, and a large anti-government demonstration in Manama, Bahrain.

This work analyzes the circulation of life histories in modern-day Spain as a genre capable of expressing precarious lives, understood as those that internalize in some way the specific historical and current conditions specific to the temporality of crisis or emergency that began in the country in 2008. The author argues that such circulation operates as a response to that same crisis, both a political crisis and a crisis of representation, contemplating the effects that the 2011-2012 Spanish protests, as a social movement and as a discursive world, develop. Those life histories, in the way they inform and shape an experience of said temporality, crystallize in narrative formalizations and offer a short story genre that we call a subprime life history. Its intense circulation in multiple informative channels and communication means, and the effects they have achieved with regards to the current output, affect the collective images of contemporary social life in modern-day Spain, positing a redescription of the sphere of political experiences and an important question for the social expectations that define the hegemonic Spanish culture. [TRANSLATION]

The essay discusses the direct impact of capitalism on the direction and course of modern history in light of the 2008 economic crisis. The author comments on the temporality of socioeconomic events and their effects on sociocultural perspectives of history. Other topics explored include whether or not economic crises qualify as historical events, crises' relation to political transformation, and economic systems' connection to hegemony.

The article presents information about a conference held in Berlin, Germany from September 28, 2010 to October first, 2010. Topics under discussion at the conference included interdisciplinary studies, academic attitudes toward history that is contemporary to its own historians, and perspectives on social research. Presentations were given by international scholars including Rüdiger Graf, Benjamin Ziemann, and Christina von Hodenberg.

The article presents an overview of the history of internet regulation worldwide. It divides this history into four eras. The first encompasses the internet's 20th century history, and is characterized by open access to information. The second era, from 2000 to 2005, is said to mark a rise in internet censorship by various repressive governments. The third, from 2005 to 2010, involved the establishment of a variety of control mechanisms which provide for more subtle filtering, as well as surveillance. The fourth era is expected to begin in 2011, and to be marked by activist opposition to control of the internet by authoritarian forces.

In modern history Northern Ireland has been home to uneasy community relations. The construction of a collective identity which embraces ethnic and religious diversity, and attracts the politically antagonized protestant and catholic communities seems to be a key to the settlement of conflicts. One of the factors preventing a firmly established inclusive Northern Irish identity is disorientation among protestants concerning their national belonging. Although by now it is only political loyalty to the United Kingdom that most Ulster Protestants share in a sense if Britishness, they also feel distanced from a communion with Irishness. Some academics argue that the present alienation of Northern Protestants from Irish culture results from the policy of the early Irish Free State which in the 1920s restricted the scope of Irishness to the catholic population. In fact, a deeper insight into Irish nationalism at the turn of the 20th century will reveal that several leading intellectuals preoccupied with the construction of a liberated identity for a culturally and linguistically colonized Irish nation were, in fact, protestants. Drawing a conclusion from the failure of previous fights for political freedom, these protestant intellectuals attempted to define the Irish nation in a cultural sense thus aiming to shape an independent Irish self- consciousness. The following paper is concerned with approaches to an ethnically and religiously inclusive Irish identity present in protestant writings of a cultural-nationalistic orientation at the dawn of the 20th century, and explores those linguistic identities the authors, in their different nationversions, associate with a culturally sovereign but largely English-speakingIrish population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion of trends in political and military organization during the early 21st century, from a global and historical perspective. It is argued that the classical nation-state paradigm, as represented by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, has always been more of an ideal than a reality. Fears that the increasing irrelevance of the Westphalian model may lead to an age of barbarism are characterized as unrealistic.

Global developments in dual citizenship legislation highlight changes to conceptualizations of citizenship by increasing the focus on individual rights. Questions of inclusion and exclusion have been illuminated by the move toward wider acceptance of dual citizenship. To understand global patterns and developments in dual citizenship laws this article analyzes the legislation pertaining to dual citizenship in 115 countries. The results show how dual citizenship is becoming increasingly accepted – a development that has predominantly taken place within the last 20 years. A strong regional pattern is identified, supporting the argument that dual citizenship is spreading in a fashion similar to how the idea of citizenship expanded from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Potential internal and external reasons for this development are discussed and individual countries’ experiences analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists a chronological list of political and military events that occurred during 2007 in states that are contiguous with the Mediterranean Sea including the resignation of Dan Halutz as Israel's military chief, the death of Hrant Dink, editor of the "Argos" newspaper, and a firefight between Israeli and Lebanese troops.

The article considers what Marxist are to do in the post-Soviet, post-9/11 world. The author argues that a paralysis has hit Marxists since 1991 and calls for self-reflection in response to a rapidly dissolving political order. The article considers the tendencies of Marxists to approach their politics as a kind of faith, relying on the "One Full Truth" of Communism and the "Salvation" of leadership. The article argues that a new Marxist worldview must be established.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses significant contributions of technological innovations to the history of the Pacific World.

Presents a chronology of events from July 16, 2003 to October 15, 2003 concerning Arab and Islamic countries, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Arab-Israeli conflict; Palestinian affairs; Information technology; Petroleum affairs; Regional affairs.

Details significant international events for the month of December 2003. Singapore and Thailand's support for the creation of a common market among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; European Union's agreement to build closer economic and technology ties with China; Israel's plans to build additional security barriers to shield Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Reports on developments in contemporary world affairs as of September 2003. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's statement that his country is engaged in all-out war against the militant Palestinian group Hamas; Agreement reached by Argentina with the International Monetary Fund and other lenders to reschedule payments on $21 billion in foreign debt; Estonians' vote to join the European Union in 2004; Case of severe acute respiratory syndrome reported by Singaporean health officials in an ethnic Chinese man.

This article argues that the rebirth of interest in the just war tradition, both academically and practically, over the last few years rests on a shaky foundation. It suggests that the character of the just war as a tradition is ill suited to certain aspects of the contemporary intellectual and political world and that historical developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have combined unhelpfully to narrow the tradition's concerns. It also suggests that, especially after 11 September, there is a growing temptation to resent the restraints that the tradition is held to impose on warmaking and thus to ignore or abandon the just war as a way of thinking about the relationship between war and politics. Nevertheless, the article argues, to abandon the just war tradition would still bring about more loss than gain and that as an aid to moral reflection and practice on the use of force, it is still a powerful tool and an invaluable aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on a conference about the methodology of contemporary history, held at the Centre Marc Bloch research institute in Berlin, Germany, from June 6-8, 2013. Topics of discussion included interdisciplinary scholarship, the relationship between history and the social sciences, and research on the history of violence.

The article reports on a conference for doctoral students in France and Germany on theoretical and methodological trends in the writing of contemporary history, held in Rennes, France, from November 30-December 1, 2012. Topics of discussion included questions of periodization in history, the connection between historiography and nationalism, and the conceptualization of the history of the present as an interdisciplinary research project.

The author responds to the article entitled "Is the present day post-medieval?," by James R. Dixon, which appears in this issue. He specifically responds to two issues raised, the practical and intellectual issues associated with applying archaeological methodologies to contemporary sites, and the role of the the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology in promoting such archaeological endeavors. Topics considered include history within living memory, the competing roles of anthropology and contemporary archaeology, and issues associated with politicizing archaeology.

The article presents the summary of a conference that focused on global history during the 21st century. It was held from August 22 to 28, 2010. Topics under discussion at the conference included the importance and the role of water (including floods, rivers, water shortages) for historical developments and conflicts, a talk on how the French Revolution period of upheaval in France was presented during the 18th century, and how World War II is perceived in popular culture.

Details significant international events for the month of October 2001. Holding of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit; Israeli forces' entry into two Arab neighborhoods in the West Bank city of Hebron; United States President George W. Bush's plan to send aid to Afghanistan.